rin origin, or to the ardent sun of Burgundy? Medical
science may dismiss the inquiry. The premature old age on the surface of
the face was counterbalanced by the glow, the fire, the wealth of light
which made the eyes two stars. Like all eyes which fill with sunlight
and need, perhaps, some sheltering screen, the eyelids were fringed with
lashes of extraordinary length. The hair, of a bluish black, long and
fine and abundant, crowned a brow moulded like that of the Farnese
Juno. That magnificent diadem of hair, those grand Armenian eyes, that
celestial brow eclipsed the rest of the face. The nose, though pure in
form as it left the brow, and graceful in curve, ended in flattened and
flaring nostrils. Anger increased this effect at times, and then the
face wore an absolutely furious expression. All the lower part of the
face, like the lower part of the nose, seemed unfinished, as if the clay
in the hands of the divine sculptor had proved insufficient. Between
the lower lip and the chin the space was so short that any one taking La
Pechina by the chin would have rubbed the lip; but the teeth prevented
all notice of this defect. One might almost believe those little bones
had souls, so brilliant were they, so polished, so transparent, so
exquisitely shaped, disclosed as they were by too wide a mouth, curved
in lines that bore resemblance to the fantastic shapes of coral. The
shells of the ears were so transparent to the light that in the sunshine
they were rose-colored. The complexion, though sun-burned, showed a
marvellous delicacy in the texture of the skin. If, as Buffon declared,
love lies in touch, the softness of the girl's skin must have had the
penetrating and inciting influence of the fragrance of daturas. The
chest and indeed the whole body was alarmingly thin; but the feet and
hands, of alluring delicacy, showed remarkable nervous power, and a
vigorous organism.

This mixture of diabolical imperfections and divine beauties, harmonious
in spite of discords, for they blended in a species of savage dignity,
also this triumph of a powerful soul over a feeble body, as written in
those eyes, made the child, when once seen, unforgettable. Nature had
wished to make that frail young being a woman; the circumstances of her
conception moulded her with the face and body of a boy. A poet observing
the strange creature would have declared her native clime to be Arabia
the Blest; she belonged to the Afrite and Genii of Arabian