Woman's greatest
charm lies in her constant appeal to the generosity of man by the
admission of a weakness which stirs his pride and wakens him to the
nobler sentiments. Is not such an avowal of weakness full of magical
seduction? When the rings of the portiere had slipped with a muffled
sound along the wooden rod, she turned towards Claes, and made as
though she would hide her physical defects by resting her hand upon a
chair and drawing herself gracefully forward. It was calling him to
help her. Balthazar, sunk for a moment in contemplation of the
olive-tinted head, which attracted and satisfied the eye as it stood out
in relief against the soft gray background, rose to take his wife in his
arms and carry her to her sofa. This was what she wanted.
"You promised me," she said, taking his hand which she held between
her own magnetic palms, "to tell me the secret of your researches.
Admit, dear friend, that I am worthy to know it, since I have had the
courage to study a science condemned by the Church that I might be
able to understand you. I am curious; hide nothing from me. Tell me
first how it happened, that you rose one morning anxious and
oppressed, when over night I had left you happy."
"Is it to hear me talk of chemistry that you have made yourself so
coquettishly delightful?"
"Dear friend, a confidence which puts me in your inner heart is the
greatest of all pleasures for me; is it not a communion of souls which
gives birth to the highest happiness of earth? Your love comes back to
me not lessened, pure; I long to know what dream has had the power to
keep it from me so long.
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