Springing quickly out of bed, she went and half opened the shutters³ of both windows. The sun, already high, sent his light across the chamber⁴ in two golden bars. Into this drowsy⁵ room that exhaled⁶ a sweet odor of youth, the bright morning brought with it fresh, cheerful air; but the young girl went back and sat down on the edge of the bed in a thoughtful attitude, clad only in her scant⁷ nightdress, which made her look still more slender, with her long tapering⁹ limbs, her strong, slender body, with its round throat, round neck, round and supple¹⁰ arms; and her adorable neck and throat, of a milky¹¹ whiteness, had the exquisite¹² softness and smoothness of white satin. For a long time, at the ungraceful age between twelve and eighteen, she had looked awkwardly tall, climbing trees like a boy. Then, from the ungainly hoyden¹³ had been evolved this charming, delicate and lovely creature.

 

With absent gaze she sat looking at the walls of the chamber. Although La Souleiade dated from the last century, it must have been refurnished under the First Empire, for it was hung with an old-fashioned printed calico, with a pattern representing

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