past weeks had left their trace on her mind and on her manner. Yet she gradually found her interest reviving in the conversation upon art and literature and public affairs which went on around her; her intellect was too keen, her sympathies too healthy, for her to brood upon her own troubles, to the exclusion of other subjects. She asked odd questions, she made acute observations; she amused both the elder men greatly; and Narishkine said, with a world of meaning in his intonation, that she was étrange. Whether her freedom from conventionality led her to be misjudged, is another question. Opinions differed very greatly on this point. Madame de Belcour affirmed, with a little laugh, that she suspected l'Anglaise to be "a prude, lined with a warm capacity for enjoyment." Professor Genron advanced, as a physiological fact, that morality was entirely a question of the shape of the hand. Mademoiselle's fingers were unfortunately virtuous. Professor Morin was strong upon eyes. He did not consider the eyes of the jeune Anglaise were encouraging. Whereupon madame responded, as many have done before, "You men are so easily deceived. Trust a woman to know her own sex." Doucet was silent, for once. But his looks expressed that "he could, an he would," say much.
It is worth while here to transcribe a conversation between the two Barings, which took place some five weeks after Elizabeth's arrival. It tells, first hand, the relative position of this brother and sister towards each other; also it indicates, better than I can describe, the exact impression her new friend made upon the sister, and the less exact impression which the brother believed that their new friend had made upon himself.
