e had said this the tenor smiled silently. The lips of all the
guests repeated that smile, in which there was a lurking expression of
malice likely to escape a lover. The publicity of his love was like
a sudden dagger-thrust in Sarrasine's heart. Although possessed of a
certain strength of character, and although nothing that might happen
could subdue the violence of his passion, it had not before occurred
to him that La Zambinella was almost a courtesan, and that he could not
hope to enjoy at one and the same time the pure delights which would
make a maiden's love so sweet, and the passionate transports with which
one must purchase the perilous favors of an actress. He reflected and
resigned himself to his fate. The supper was served. Sarrasine and La
Zambinella seated themselves side by side without ceremony. During the
first half of the feast the artists exercised some restraint, and the
sculptor was able to converse with the singer. He found that she was
very bright and quick-witted; but she was amazingly ignorant and seemed
weak and superstitious. The delicacy of her organs was reproduced in
her understanding. When Vitagliani opened the first bottle of champagne,
Sarrasine read in his neighbor's eyes a shrinking dread of the report
caused by the release of the gas. The involuntary shudder of that
thoroughly feminine temperament was interpreted by the amorous artist
as indicating extreme delicacy of feeling. This weakness delighted the
Frenchman. There is so much of the element of protection in a man's
love!

"'You may make use of my power as a shield!'

"Is not that sentence written at the root of all declarations of love?
Sarrasine, who was too passionately in love to make fine speeches to the
fair Italian, was, like all lovers, grave, jovial, meditative, by turns.
Although he seemed to listen to the guests, he did not hear a word that
they said, he was so wrapped up in the pleasure of sitting by her side,
of touching her hand, of waiting on her. He was swimming in a sea of
concealed joy. Despite the eloquence of divers glances they exchanged,
he was amazed at La Zambinella's continued reserve toward him. She had
begun, it is true, by touching his foot with hers and stimulating his
passion with the mischievous pleasure of a woman who is free and in
love; but she had suddenly enveloped herself in maidenly modesty, after
she had heard Sarrasine relate an incident which illustrated the extreme
violence of his temper