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[Visker <sto...@be...>]

 as to be able to stand up or push forward as her fancy moved her,
treating the living pictures and groups in the hall as if she were in a
picture gallery; impertinently turning her eye-glass on persons not two
yards away, and making her remarks as though she were criticising or
praising a study of a head, a painting of genre. Her eyes, after
wandering over the vast moving picture, were suddenly caught by this
figure, which seemed to have been placed on purpose in one corner of the
canvas, and in the best light, like a person out of all proportion with
the rest. The stranger, alone and absorbed in thought, leaned lightly
against one of the columns that supported the roof; his arms were
folded, and he leaned slightly on one side as though he had placed
himself there to have his portrait taken by a painter. His attitude,
though full of elegance and dignity, was devoid of affectation. Nothing
suggested that he had half turned his head, and bent it a little to the
right like Alexander, or Lord Byron, and some other great men, for the
sole purpose of attracting attention. His fixed gaze followed a girl who
was dancing, and betrayed some strong feeling. His slender, easy frame
recalled the noble proportions of the Apollo. Fine black hair curled
naturally over a high forehead. At a glance Mademoiselle de Fontaine
observed that his linen was fine, his gloves fresh, and evidently bought
of a good maker, and his feet were small and well shod in boots of Irish
kid. He had none of the vulgar trinkets displayed by the dandies of the
National Guard or the Lovelaces of the counting-house. A black ribbon,
to which an eye-glass was attached, hung over a waistcoat of the most
fashionable cut. Never had the fastidious Emilie seen a man's eyes
shaded by such long, curled lashes. Melancholy and passion were
expressed in this face, and the complexion was of a manly olive hue. His
mouth seemed ready to smile, unbending th