could not understand what all this meant; shrugging her
shoulders, she thought, "He's showing off!" After all she was rather glad
of the Count's new courtship, and turned her attention to her other
neighbour.

Thaddeus, also gloomy, ate nothing and drank nothing; he seemed to be
listening to the conversation, and glued his eyes on his plate. When
Telimena poured him out wine, he was angry at her importunity; when she
asked about his health, he yawned. He took it ill (so much had he changed
in one evening) that Telimena was too ready to flirt; he was vext that her
gown was cut so low--immodestly--and now for the first time, when he raised
his eyes, he was almost frightened! For his sight had quickened; hardly
had he glanced at Telimena's rosy face, when all at once he discovered a
great and terrible secret! For Heaven's sake, she was rouged!

Whether the rouge was of a bad sort, or somehow had been accidentally
scratched upon her face, at all events, here and there it was thin, and
revealed beneath it a coarser complexion. Perhaps Thaddeus himself, in the
Temple of Meditation, speaking too near her, had brushed from its white
foundation the carmine, lighter than the dust of a butterfly's wing.
Telimena had come back from the wood in too much of a hurry, and had not
had time to repair her colouring; around her mouth, in particular,
freckles could be seen. So the eyes of Thaddeus, like cunning spies,
having discovered one piece of treason, began to explore one after another
her remaining charms, and everywhere discovered some falsity. Two teeth
were missing in her mouth; on her brow and temples there were wrinkles;
thousands of wrinkles were concealed beneath her chin.

Alas! Thaddeus felt how unwise it is to observe too closely a beautiful
object; how shameful to be a spy over one's sweetheart; how even loathsome
it is to change one's taste and heart--but who can control his heart? In
vain he tried to supply the lack of love by conscience, to warm again the
coldness of his soul with the flame of her glance; now that glance, like
the moon, bright but without warmth, shone over the surface of a soul that
was chilled to its depths. Making such complaints and reproaches to
himself, he bent his head over his plate, kept silent, and bit his lips.

Meanwhile an evil spirit assailed him with a new temptation, to listen to
what Zosia was saying to the Count. The girl, captivated by the Count's
affability, at first blushed, lower