ded, which he
pressed to his lips with enthusiastic ardor. Then, unable to restrain
the expression of his full happiness, he uttered a full and sonorous
cry of joy, and with a bound he was in front of the plate-glass which
separated the saloon from the conservatory, in which he had first seen
Mdlle. de Cardoville. By a singular power of remembrance, or marvellous
hallucination of a mind possessed by a fixed idea, Djalma had often
seen, or fancied he saw, the adored semblance of Adrienne appear to him
through this sheet of crystal. The illusion had been so complete, that,
with his eyes ardently fixed on the vision he invoked, he had been able,
with the aid of a pencil dipped in carmine, to trace with astonishing
exactness, the profile of the ideal countenance which the delirium
of his imagination had presented to his view.(42) It was before
these delicate lines of bright carmine that Djalma now stood in deep
contemplation, after perusing and reperusing, and raising twenty times
to his lips, the letter he had received the night before from the hands
of Dupont. Djalma was not alone. Faringhea watched all the movements
of the prince, with a subtle, attentive, and gloomy aspect. Standing
respectfully in a corner of the saloon, the half-caste appeared to be
occupied in unfolding and spreading out Djalma's sash, light, silky
Indian web, the brown ground of which was almost entirely concealed by
the exquisite gold and silver embroidery with which it was overlaid.

The countenance of the half-caste wore a dark and gloomy expression.
He could not deceive himself. The letter from Mdlle. de Cardoville,
delivered by Dupont to Djalma, must have been the cause of the delight
he now experienced, for, without doubt, he knew himself beloved. In that
event, his obstinate silence towards Faringhea, ever since the latter
had entered the saloon, greatly alarmed the half-caste, who could not
tell what interpretation to put upon it. The night before, after parting
with Dupont, he had hastened, in a state of anxiety easily understood,
to look for the prince, in the hope of ascertaining the effect produced
by Mdlle. de Cardoville's letter. But he found the parlor door closed,
and when he knocked, he received no answer from within. Then, though the
night was far advanced, he had dispatched a note to Rodin, in which he
informed him of Dupont's visit and its probable intention. Djalma had
indeed passed the night in a tumult of happiness and hope, an