phosphorescence. Her short, turned-up nose,
with large, dilated, palpitating nostrils, was one of those noses of
which the common people say that it rains inside: upon one side, at the
corner of the eye was a thick, swollen blue vein. The square head of the
Lorraine race was emphasized in her broad, high, prominent cheek-bones,
which were well-covered with the traces of small-pox. The most
noticeable defect in her face was the too great distance between the
nose and mouth. This lack of proportion gave an almost apish character
to the lower part of the head, where the expansive mouth, with white
teeth and full lips that looked as if they had been crushed, they were
so flat, smiled at you with a strange, vaguely irritating smile.

Her _decollete_ dress disclosed her neck, the upper part of her breast,
her shoulders and her white back, presenting a striking contrast to her
swarthy face. It was a lymphatic sort of whiteness, the whiteness, at
once unhealthy and angelic, of flesh in which there is no life. She had
let her arms fall by her sides--round, smooth arms with a pretty dimple
at the elbow. Her wrists were delicate; her hands, which did not betray
the servant, were embellished with a lady's fingernails. And lazily,
with graceful sloth, she allowed her indolent figure to curve and
sway;--a figure that a garter might span, and that was made even more
slender to the eye by the projection of the hips and the curve of the
hoops that gave the balloon-like roundness to her skirt;--an impossible
waist, absurdly small but adorable, like everything in woman that
offends one's sense of proportion by its diminutiveness.

From this ugly woman emanated a piquant, mysterious charm. Light and
shadow, jostling and intercepting each other on her face on which
hollows and protuberances abounded, imparted to it that suggestion of
libertinism which the painter of love scenes gives to the rough sketch
of his mistress. Everything about her,--her mouth, her eyes, her very
plainness--was instinct with allurement and solicitation. Her person
exhaled an aphrodisiac charm, which challenged and laid fast hold of the
other sex. It unloosed desire, and caused an electric shock. Sensual
thoughts were naturally and involuntarily aroused by her, by her
gestures, her gait, her slightest movement--even by the air in which her
body had left one of its undulations. Beside her, one felt as if he were
near one of those disturbing, disquieting creatures, b