hout jewels; a necklace
of large pearls lay on her rose-tinted bosom, and the heraldic coronet
sparkled on her fair hair.

Camors caught her eye as he entered, as if she were watching for him.
He had seen her the previous evening, and they had had a more lively
skirmish than usual. He was struck by her brilliancy--her beauty
heightened, without doubt, by the secret ardor of the quarrel, as if
illuminated by an interior flame, with all the clear, soft splendor of a
transparent alabaster vase.

When he advanced to join her and salute her, yielding, against his will,
to an involuntary movement of passionate admiration, he said:

"You are truly beautiful this evening. Enough so to make one commit a
crime."

She looked fixedly in his eyes, and replied:

"I should like to see that," and then left him, with superb nonchalance.

The General approached, and tapping the Count on the shoulder, said:

"Camors! you do not dance, as usual. Let us play a game of piquet."

"Willingly, General;" and traversing two or three salons they reached
the private boudoir of the Marquise. It was a small oval room, very
lofty, hung with thick red silk tapestry, covered with black and white
flowers. As the doors were removed, two heavy curtains isolated the room
completely from the neighboring gallery. It was there that the General
usually played cards and slept during his fetes. A small card-table was
placed before a divan. Except this addition, the boudoir preserved its
every-day aspect. Woman's work, half finished, books, journals, and
reviews were strewn upon the furniture. They played two or three games,
which the General won, as Camors was very abstracted.

"I reproach myself, young man," said the former, "in having kept you so
long away from the ladies. I give you back your liberty--I shall cast my
eye on the journals."

"There is nothing new in them, I think," said Camors, rising. He took
up a newspaper himself, and placing his back against the mantelpiece,
warmed his feet, one after the other. The General threw himself on the
divan, ran his eye over the 'Moniteur de l'Armee', approving of some
military promotions, and criticising others; and, little by little, he
fell into a doze, his head resting on his chest.

But Camors was not reading. He listened vaguely to the music of the
orchestra, and fell into a reverie. Through these harmonies, through the
murmurs and warm perfume of the ball, he followed, in thought, all the
evolut