Festoons of camellias and
violets hung between the vine-wreathed eighteenth century candelabras,
round which sported fairies and nymphs, and on the wall-hangings more
fairies and nymphs, and all the charming figures of the pastoral
mythology--the Corydons, the Phylises, the Rosalinds--animated with
their sylvan loves one of those sunny Cytherean landscapes originated by
the fanciful imagination of Antoine Watteau.
The slightly erotic excitement, which is apt to take hold upon the
spirits at the end of a dinner graced by fair women and flowers,
betrayed itself in the tone of the conversations, and the reminiscences
of this bazaar, at which the ladies--urged on by a noble spirit of
emulation in collecting the largest sums--employed the most unheard of
audacities to attract buyers.
'And did you accept it?' asked Andrea of the Duchess.
'I sacrificed my hands on the altar of Benevolence,' she replied.
'Twenty-five louis more to my account!'
'_All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand._' He
laughed as he quoted Lady Macbeth's words, but, in reality, his heart
was sore with a confused, ill-defined pain, that bore a strong
resemblance to jealousy. And suddenly he became aware of something
excessive, almost--it might be--a touch of the courtesan, defacing the
manners of the great lady. Certain inflections of her voice, certain
tones of her laughter, here a gesture, there an attitude, certain
glances, exhaled a charm that was perhaps a trifle too Aphrodisiac.
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