her young face, signs of the fineness of the
skin; but her features were coarsened, as it were, and the circles about
her eyes were unwontedly dark. Nature nevertheless was so vigorous in
her, that these traces of past folly did not spoil her beauty. Her eyes
glittered. She looked like some _Herodias_ of da Vinci's (I have dealt
in pictures), so magnificently full of life and energy was she; there
was nothing starved nor stinted in feature or outline; she awakened
desire; it seemed to me that there was some passion in her yet stronger
than love. I was taken with her. It was a long while since my heart
had throbbed; so I was paid then and there--for I would give a thousand
francs for a sensation that should bring me back memories of youth.

"'"Monsieur," she said, finding a chair for me, "will you be so good as
to wait?"

"'"Until this time to-morrow, madame," I said, folding up the bill
again. "I cannot legally protest this bill any sooner." And within
myself I said--"Pay the price of your luxury, pay for your name, pay for
your ease, pay for the monopoly which you enjoy! The rich have invented
judges and courts of law to secure their goods, and the guillotine--that
candle in which so many lie in silk, under silken coverlets, there is
remorse, and grinding of teeth beneath a smile, and those fantastical
lions' jaws are gaping to set their fangs in your heart."

"'"Protest the bill! Can you mean it?" she cried, with her eyes upon me;
"could you have so little consideration for me?"

"'"If the King himself owed money to me, madame, and did not pay it, I
should summons him even sooner than any other debtor."

"'While we were speaking, somebody tapped gently at the door.

"'"I cannot see any one," she cried imperiously.

"'"But, Anastasie, I particularly wish to speak to you."

"'"Not just now, dear," she answered in a milder tone, but with no sign
of relenting.

"'"What nonsense! You are talking to some one," said the voice, and in
came a man who could only be the Count.

"'The Countess gave me a glance. I saw how it was. She was thoroughly
in my power. There was a time, when I was young, and might perhaps have
been stupid enough not to protest the bill. At Pondicherry, in 1763, I
let a woman off, and nicely she paid me out afterwards. I deserved it;
what call was there for me to trust her?

"'"What does this gentleman want?" asked the Count.

"'I could see that the Countess was trembling from head to foot; th