lenge,
the friends turned again to the front of the theatre, and affected
to busy themselves with the stage. At this moment the door of the
minister's box opened, and Madame Danglars, accompanied by her daughter,
entered, escorted by Lucien Debray, who assiduously conducted them to
their seats.

"Ha, ha," said Chateau-Renaud, "here comes some friends of yours,
viscount! What are you looking at there? don't you see they are trying
to catch your eye?" Albert turned round, just in time to receive a
gracious wave of the fan from the baroness; as for Mademoiselle Eugenie,
she scarcely vouchsafed to waste the glances of her large black eyes
even upon the business of the stage. "I tell you what, my dear fellow,"
said Chateau-Renaud, "I cannot imagine what objection you can possibly
have to Mademoiselle Danglars--that is, setting aside her want of
ancestry and somewhat inferior rank, which by the way I don't think
you care very much about. Now, barring all that, I mean to say she is a
deuced fine girl!"

"Handsome, certainly," replied Albert, "but not to my taste, which I
confess, inclines to something softer, gentler, and more feminine."

"Ah, well," exclaimed Chateau-Renaud, who because he had seen his
thirtieth summer fancied himself duly warranted in assuming a sort of
paternal air with his more youthful friend, "you young people are never
satisfied; why, what would you have more? your parents have chosen you
a bride built on the model of Diana, the huntress, and yet you are not
content."

"No, for that very resemblance affrights me; I should have liked
something more in the manner of the Venus of Milo or Capua; but this
chase-loving Diana continually surrounded by her nymphs gives me a sort
of alarm lest she should some day bring on me the fate of Actaeon."

And, indeed, it required but one glance at Mademoiselle Danglars to
comprehend the justness of Morcerf's remark--she was beautiful, but her
beauty was of too marked and decided a character to please a fastidious
taste; her hair was raven black, but its natural waves seemed somewhat
rebellious; her eyes, of the same color as her hair, were surmounted by
well-arched brows, whose great defect, however, consisted in an almost
habitual frown, while her whole physiognomy wore that expression
of firmness and decision so little in accordance with the gentler
attributes of her sex--her nose was precisely what a sculptor would
have chosen for a chiselled Juno. Her mouth, w