A certain harmony
between her manners and her dress made her seem so much younger than
she was that Madame du Gua thought herself beyond the mark in
supposing her over twenty. The coquetry of her apparel, evidently worn
to please, was enough to inspire hope in the young man's breast; but
Mademoiselle de Verneuil bowed to him, as she took her place, with a
slight inclination of her head and without looking at him, putting him
aside with an apparently light-hearted carelessness which disconcerted
him. This coolness might have seemed to an observer neither caution
nor coquetry, but indifference, natural or feigned. The candid
expression on the young lady's face only made it the more
impenetrable. She showed no consciousness of her charms, and was
apparently gifted with the pretty manners that win all hearts, and had
already duped the natural self-conceit of the young sailor. Thus
baffled, the youth returned to his own seat with a sort of vexation.
Mademoiselle de Verneuil took Francine, who accompanied her, by the
hand and said, in a caressing voice, turning to Madame de Gua:
"Madame, will you have the kindness to allow this young girl, who is
more a friend than a servant to me, to sit with us? In these perilous
times such devotion as hers can only be repaid by the heart; indeed,
that is very nearly all that is left to us.
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