This change made her
transcendental beauty much less mysterious, much more accessible to a
man's comprehension. An amazing ease of mind came to the general--and
even some ease of manner. He walked down the room with as much
pleasurable excitement as he would have found in walking up to a battery
vomiting death, fire, and smoke; then stood looking down with smiling
eyes at the girl whose marriage with him (next week) had been so
carefully arranged by the wise, the good, the admirable Leonie.
"Ah! mademoiselle," he said, in a tone of courtly regret, "if only I
could be certain that you did not come here this morning, two miles,
running all the way, merely from affection for your mother!"
He waited for an answer imperturbable but inwardly elated. It came in a
demure murmur, eyelashes lowered with fascinating effect. "You must not
be mechant as well as mad."
And then General D'Hubert made an aggressive movement towards the divan
which nothing could check. That piece of furniture was not exactly in
the line of the open door.
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