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86 was saying, "they're not the only things about her that tempt one. She's forty-ﬁve, but her ﬁgure is still good and not too excessively run to ﬂesh. As a whole she is certainly a bit ample, but at the Art School one could still make a very respectable Juno of her. I've seen worse on the model's throne..."

"Time," said M. Hervart, "often shows angelical clemency. He pardons women who have been good lovers."

"And still are," said Lanfranc.

"There's no better recreation than love," said Leonor. "No sport more suited to keep one ﬁt and supple."

M. Hervart looked in surprise at this dim young man who had so unexpectedly made a joke. Anxious to shine in his turn, he replied.

"No one has ever dared to put that in a manual of hygiene. What a charming chapter one could make of it, in the style of the First Empire: 'Love, the preserver of Beauty.'"

"A pretty subject too for the Prix de Rome," said Lanfranc.

"Seriously," broke in M. Des Boys, "I believe that the thing that so quickly shrivels up virtuous women is chastity."