d
seemed to be examining the sash through which her light came,--giving so
much importance to it that she mounted a chair to raise the green serge,
which intercepted the light, much higher. Reaching that height, her eye
was on a level with a slight opening in the partition, the real object
of her efforts, for the glance that she cast through it can be compared
only to that of a miser discovering Aladdin's treasure. Then she sprang
down hastily and returned to her place, changed the position of her
picture, pretended to be still dissatisfied with the light, pushed
a table close to the partition, on which she placed a chair, climbed
lightly to the summit of this erection, and again looked through the
crevice. She cast but one glance into the space beyond, which was
lighted through a skylight; but what she saw produced so strong an
effect upon her that she tottered.

"Take care, Mademoiselle Ginevra, you'll fall!" cried Laure.

All the young girls gazed at the imprudent climber, and the fear of
their coming to her gave her courage; she recovered her equilibrium, and
replied, as she balanced herself on the shaking chair:--

"Pooh! it is more solid than a throne!"

She then secured the curtain and came down, pushed the chair and table
as far as possible from the partition, returned to her easel, and seemed
to be arranging it to suit the volume of light she had now thrown upon
it. Her picture, however, was not in her mind, which was wholly bent on
getting as near as possible to the closet, against the door of which she
finally settled herself. Then she began to prepare her palette in the
deepest silence. Sitting there, she could hear, distinctly, a sound
which had strongly excited her curiosity the evening before, and had
whirled her young imagination across vast fields of conjecture. She
recognized the firm and regular breathing of a man whom she had just
seen asleep. Her curiosity was satisfied beyond her expectations, but at
the same time she felt saddled by an immense responsibility. Through the
opening in the wall she had seen the Imperial eagle; and upon the flock
bed, faintly lighted from above, lay the form of an officer of the
Guard. She guessed all. Servin was hiding a proscribed man!

She now trembled lest any of her companions should come near here to
examine her picture, when the regular breathing or some deeper breath
might reveal to them, as it had to her, the presence of this political
victim. She resolve