No
expression of embarrassment detracted from the candor of her face, or
the calm look of eyes immortalized long since in the sublime works of
Raphael; here were the same grace, the same repose as in those
Virgins, and now proverbial. There was a delightful contrast between
the cheeks of that face on which sleep had, as it were, given high
relief to a superabundance of life, and the antiquity of the heavy
window with its clumsy shape and black sill. Like those day-blowing
flowers, which in the early morning have not yet unfurled their cups,
twisted by the chills of night, the girl, as yet hardly awake, let her
blue eyes wander beyond the neighboring roofs to look at the sky;
then, from habit, she cast them down on the gloomy depths of the
street, where they immediately met those of her adorer. Vanity, no
doubt, distressed her at being seen in undress; she started back, the
worn pulley gave way, and the sash fell with the rapid run, which in
our day has earned for this artless invention of our forefathers an
odious name, _Fenetre a la Guillotine_. The vision had disappeared. To
the young man the most radiant star of morning seemed to be hidden by
a cloud.
During these little incidents the heavy inside shutters that protected
the slight windows of the shop of the "Cat and Racket" had been
removed as if by magic. The old door with its knocker was opened back
against the wall of the entry by a man-servant, apparently coeval with
the sign, who, with a shaking hand, hung upon it a square of cloth, on
which were embroidered in yellow silk the words: "Guillaume, successor
to Chevrel.
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