The gleam of the wax candles cast a mellow sheen on the
coverings of pearl-gray silk, whose monotony was relieved by touches
of gold, soberly distributed here and there on a few ornaments, and by
the varied colors of the tulips, which were like sheaves of precious
stones. The secret of this choice arrangement--it was he, ever he!
Josephine could not tell him in words more eloquent that he was now
and ever the mainspring of her joys and woes.
The aspect of that chamber put the soul deliciously at ease, cast out
sad thoughts, and left a sense of pure and equable happiness. The
silken coverings, brought from China, gave forth a soothing perfume
that penetrated the system without fatiguing it. The curtains,
carefully drawn, betrayed a desire for solitude, a jealous intention
of guarding the sound of every word, of hiding every look of the
reconquered husband. Madame Claes, wearing a dressing-robe of muslin,
which was trimmed by a long pelerine with falls of lace that came
about her throat, and adorned with her beautiful black hair, which was
exquisitely glossy and fell on either side of her forehead like a
raven's wing, went to draw the tapestry portiere that hung before the
door and allowed no sound to penetrate the chamber from without.
CHAPTER VI
At the doorway Josephine turned, and threw to her husband, who was
sitting near the chimney, one of those gay smiles with which a
sensitive woman whose soul comes at moments into her face, rendering
it beautiful, gives expression to irresistible hopes.
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