elt very
sure that Madame Marion would, on that same evening, make her certain
overtures relating to Simon and Cecile. After telling his wife of
Charles Keller's death, Phileas asked her opinion with an artless "What
do you think of that, wife?" which fully pictured his habit of deferring
to Severine's opinion in all things. Then he sat down in an arm-chair
and awaited her reply.

In 1839, Madame Beauvisage, then forty-four years old, was so
well-preserved that she might, in that respect, rival Mademoiselle Mars.
By calling to mind the most charming Celimene that the Theatre-Francais
ever had, an excellent idea of Severine Grevin's appearance will be
obtained. The same richness of coloring, the same beauty of features,
the same clearly defined outlines; but the hosier's wife was short,--a
circumstance which deprived her of that noble grace, that charming
coquetry _a la_ Sevigne, through which the great actress commends
herself to the memory of men who saw both the Empire and the
Restoration.

Provincial life and the rather careless style of dress into which,
for the last ten years, Severine had allowed herself to fall, gave a
somewhat common air to that noble profile and those beautiful
features; increasing plumpness was destroying the outlines of a figure
magnificently fine during the first twelve years of her married life.
But Severine redeemed these growing imperfections with a sovereign,
superb, imperious glance, and a certain haughty carriage of her head.
Her hair, still black and thick and long, was raised high upon her head,
giving her a youthful look. Her shoulders and bosom were snowy, but they
now rose puffily in a manner to obstruct the free movement of the neck,
which had grown too short. Her plump and dimpled arms ended in pretty
little hands that were, alas, too fat. She was, in fact, so overdone
with fulness of life and health that her flesh formed a little pad,
as one might call it, above her shoes. Two ear-drops, worth about
three-thousand francs each, adorned her ears. She wore a lace cap with
pink ribbons, a mousseline-de-laine gown in pink and gray stripes with
an edging of green, opened at the bottom to show a petticoat trimmed
with valencienne lace; and a green cashmere shawl with palm-leaves, the
point of which reached the ground as she walked.

"You are not so hungry," she said, casting her eyes on Beauvisage,
"that you can't wait half an hour? My father has finished dinner and I
couldn't eat