ngs to do yet. The horses have been put to this last hour. I
am sure they will take cold in that icy courtyard." As she spoke she
stretched out her foot, shod with a red-heeled slipper, glittering with
gold embroidery. Her plump foot seemed to overflow the side of the shoe
a trifle, and through the openwork of her bright silk stocking the rosy
skin of her ankle showed at intervals.

"What do you think of me, Monsieur Artist?"

"But, Countess, my dear aunt, I mean, I--I am dazzled by this July sun,
the brightest of all the year, you know. You are adorable, adorable--and
your hair!"

"Is it not well arranged? Silvani did it; he has not his equal, that
man. The diamonds in the hair go splendidly, and then this lofty style
of head-dressing gives a majestic turn to the neck. I do not know
whether you are aware that I have always been a coquette as regards
my neck; it is my only bit of vanity. Have you brought your little
color-pots?"

"Yes, aunt, I have the whole apparatus, and if you will sit down--"

"I am frightfully pale-just a little, Ernest; you know what I told you,"
and she turned her head, presenting her right eye to me. I can still see
that eye.

I do not know what strange perfume, foreign to aunts in general, rose
from her garments.

"You understand, my dear boy, that it is only an occasion like the
present, and the necessities of a historical costume, that make me
consent to paint like this."

"My dear little aunt, if you move, my hand will shake." And, indeed, in
touching her long lashes, my hand trembled.

"Ah! yes, in the corner, a little--you are right, it gives a softness,
a vagueness, a--it is very funny, that little pot of blue. How ugly it
must be! How things lead on one to another! Once one's hair is powdered,
one must have a little pearl powder on one's face in order not to look
as yellow as an orange; and one's cheeks once whitened, one can't--you
are tickling me with your brush--one can't remain like a miller, so a
touch of rouge is inevitable. And then--see how wicked it is--if, after
all that, one does not enlarge the eyes a bit, they look as if they had
been bored with a gimlet, don't they? It is like this that one goes on
little by little, till one comes to the gallows."

My aunt began to laugh freely, as she studied her face.

"Ah! that is very effective what you have just done--well under the
eye, that's it. What animation it gives to the look! How clever those
creatures are, how w