ch; but was I not right to refuse to take that persecuted innocence
into our house? A pretty snake, indeed, I should have warmed in my
breast! _She_ helpless! I think one who lets herself be painted thus,
knows very well how to help herself. And really I do not know which I
ought to wonder at most, at my good unsuspicious husband, who was so
easily taken in by an experienced adventuress, or, if indeed he were
not so entirely harmless in the matter, at his sanguine hope of
humbugging me. At all events I am very glad that things have taken this
turn.'

"After this attack and these imputations clothed in the most discreet
and proper language, to which I had not so much as a word to answer, my
domestic guardian angel drew me hastily away, as if fearing that
dangerous person might even in her picture exercise some witchcraft
over me. And really there was nothing out of the way in the idea, for
all that my eccentric friend possessed of taste and love of beauty, had
been expended on the figure of the young woman, who, already undraped
to the hips, sat on a low stool in the act of taking off her little
shoe. While so doing she turned to the left the well-remembered
profile, which was drawn with the tenderest contour, not a single
feature altered, and a striking likeness; her hair, which seemed to
have been just loosened, fell in bewitching confusion over her lustrous
neck. Her back and arms were so beautifully drawn, that I knew not how
to give the good 'genre' painter credit for them. But what specially
attracted me was the sad impassive expression with which the fair being
bent her head, and cast her long-lashed eyes on the ground. King David
up there in his balcony did not appear to me at that moment to be such
a great sinner after all; or at least the extenuating circumstances
under which that abominable letter anent Uriah was written, came before
me more impressively than they had ever done in the presence of any
painting of the subject before.

"I confess that I spent the rest of the day in a somewhat perturbed
mood; my old creed, namely, that women _were_ women, was once more
confirmed, and the apparent exception turned out to be an illusion.
Whether it were through vanity, or distress, or mere apathy, the
beautiful girl had not maintained her inviolability. But although it is
very pleasant to be proved right, and though I ought, besides, to have
rejoiced that the poor _innamorato_ should in this not unusual way be
hea