FRENCH AUTHORESSES. 285 



the limpid transparency of her clear blue eyes, and the Grecian re- 



fularity of the lines of her figure, her countenance was marked by a 

 ind of heaviness, compounded of sweetness, indifference, and pro- 

 found calm, which impressed the beholder with a feeling of melan- 

 choly. It seemeed as if that young girl had an existence distinct 

 from that of ordinary mortals. Her postures were as singular as the 

 petrified repose of her features. Seated on the ground, with the 

 recklessness of an infant, she seemed to be utterly devoid of volition ; 

 it would appear as if she had been paralized on the spot, and yet 

 there was life, strength, and health all indicated in that fresh and 

 glowing complexion, and feeling in that bosom she concealed by her 

 pellerine in disorder. 



Such was the idiot Denise Lazare. She lived in the house of her 

 young protector like a domestic animal. She was so gentle that she 

 became a favourite, and so quiet that her existence might be forgotten 

 for whole days. In a moment of ecstatic admiration of the rich 

 treasures of beauty so lavishly bestowed upon the young idiot, Ca- 

 zales forget the duties of a guardian and the principles of a man, and 

 violated his ward. He escaped detection by placing her in an asylum 

 attached to a convent. But though his joy at being thus saved in the 

 eyes of others was almost frantic, his heart told him that he was for 

 ever degraded in his own. 



This introduction to the story stops short here : as if at the whistle 

 of the prompter, the scene shifs, and we are rolling along the road 

 between Tarbes and Bourdeaux in a diligence, where, amongst a 

 motley group, we are first introduced to our heroines. The novice 

 Blanche is being transported to a convent under the care of a Sister 

 of Charity, while the young actress Rose is proceeding with her 

 mother to fulfil a professional engagement at the little town of Tarbes. 

 The travellers having alighted to ascend a hill on foot, the Sister of 

 Charity, Olympia, pairs off with a dragoon; the very respectable 

 mother of the young comedian pairs off with a custom-house officer, 

 the depth of whose heart and pockets she had been previously busy 

 in sounding 



"While the virtue of Maddlle. Primrose presented the barriers of pro- 

 priety to the attacks of the economical functionary, her little niece sprang 

 forward in advance of the carriage and with a friendly., playful air, placed 

 her arm within that of the novice. The gentle and timid girl allowed 

 herself to be hurried along, and when they had turned an angle in the 

 road, and escaped the observations of the men, the young nun became as 

 joyous and playful as the young actress. At first they amused themselves 

 with pursuing the beautiful blue butterflies that fluttered among the 

 flowers. The actress wove a garland of flowers, which she placed with a 

 roguish and coquettish air, upon her glossy black hair. She then pro- 

 ceeded to fashion another for the nun, but she refused it. The actress, 

 obstinate and self-willed ran after her. The novice being the taller and 

 stronger might have defended herself with ease had she desired to do so, 

 and the actress being the more active and the more succinctly attired, 

 bounded forward, pushed her, threw her down, and snatched off her white 

 cap. It was then that the young sister appeared in all her loveliness. 

 Her cheeks crimson with exercise and her short black hair clustering in 

 curls on her pure forehead and her snowy neck. The actress threw her 



