she was wont to boast.
The tones of her flesh had taken the pallid tints so often seen in
"devotes." Her aquiline nose was the feature that chiefly proclaimed
the despotism of her nature, and the flat shape of her forehead the
narrowness of her mind. Her movements had an odd abruptness which
precluded all grace; the mere motion with which she twitched her
handkerchief from her bag and blew her nose with a loud noise would have
shown her character and habits to a keen observer. Being rather tall,
she held herself very erect, and justified the remark of a naturalist
who once explained the peculiar gait of old maids by declaring that
their joints were consolidating. When she walked her movements were not
equally distributed over her whole person, as they are in other women,
producing those graceful undulations which are so attractive. She moved,
so to speak, in a single block, seeming to advance at each step like the
statue of the Commendatore. When she felt in good humour she was apt,
like other old maids, to tell of the chances she had had to marry,
and of her fortunate discovery in time of the want of means of her
lovers,--proving, unconsciously, that her worldly judgment was better
than her heart.

This typical figure of the genus Old Maid was well framed by the
grotesque designs, representing Turkish landscapes, on a varnished
paper which decorated the walls of the dining-room. Mademoiselle
Gamard usually sat in this room, which boasted of two pier tables and
a barometer. Before the chair of each abbe was a little cushion covered
with worsted work, the colors of which were faded. The salon in which
she received company was worthy of its mistress. It will be visible to
the eye at once when we state that it went by the name of the "yellow
salon." The curtains were yellow, the furniture and walls yellow; on the
mantelpiece, surmounted by a mirror in a gilt frame, the candlesticks
and a clock all of crystal struck the eye with sharp brilliancy. As
to the private apartment of Mademoiselle Gamard, no one had ever been
permitted to look into it. Conjecture alone suggested that it was full
of odds and ends, worn-out furniture, and bits of stuff and pieces dear
to the hearts of all old maids.

Such was the woman destined to exert a vast influence on the last years
of the Abbe Birotteau.

For want of exercising in nature's own way the activity bestowed upon
women, and yet impelled to spend it in some way or other, Mademoise