at table. She was astounded at
the honour I shewed her daughter, and she overwhelmed me with thanks.

"You owe me no gratitude," said I to her; "your daughter is clever, good,
and beautiful."

"Thank the gentleman for his compliment," said the mother, "for you are
really stupid, wanton, and ugly;" and then she added, "But how could you
have the face to sit at table with the gentleman in a dirty chemise?"

"I should blush, mother, if I thought you were right; but I put a clean
one on only two hours ago."

"Madam," said I to the mother, "the chemise cannot look white beside your
daughter's whiter skin."

This made the mother laugh, and pleased the girl immensely. When the
mother told her that she was come to take her back, Veronique said, with
a sly smile,--

"Perhaps the gentleman won't be pleased at my leaving him twenty-four
hours before he goes away."

"On the contrary," said I, "I should be very vexed."

"Well; then, she can stay, sir," said the mother; "but for decency's sake
I must send her younger sister to sleep with her."

"If you please," I rejoined. And with that I left them.

The thought of Veronique troubled me, as I knew I was taken with her, and
what I had to dread was a calculated resistance.

The mother came into my room where I was writing, and wished me a
pleasant journey, telling me for the second time that she was going to
send her daughter Annette. The girl came in the evening, accompanied by a
servant, and after lowering her mezzaro, and kissing my hand
respectfully, she ran gaily to kiss her sister.

I wanted to see what she was like, and called for candles; and on their
being brought I found she was a blonde of a kind I had never before seen.
Her hair, eyebrows, and eyelashes were the colour of pale gold, fairer
almost than her skin, which was extremely delicate. She was very
short-sighted, but her large pale blue eyes were wonderfully beautiful.
She had the smallest mouth imaginable, but her teeth, though regular,
were not so white as her skin. But for this defect Annette might have
passed for a perfect beauty.

Her shortness of sight made too brilliant a light painful to her, but as
she stood before me she seemed to like me looking at her. My gaze fed
hungrily on the two little half-spheres, which were not yet ripe, but so
white as to make me guess how ravishing the rest of her body must be.
Veronique did not shew her breasts so freely. One could see that she was
superbly shaped