Page:Georges Eekhoud - Escal Vigor, a novel.djvu/105

Rh letters. Blandine replied to them under the grandmother's dictation; but very often she was the first to find the affectionate word, or turn of phrase, which the old lady was seeking. She finally wound up by writing the whole epistle straight off the reel, according to the sketch which she asked for from her mistress, the latter confessing that Blandine's style was even more maternal than her own.

The Dowager also showed her the portraits of the young Count, and the two women would go over for hours, without weariness, the various pictures of their fetish, from the daguerreotype which represented him as a restless baby with one foot bare, on his mother's knees, up to the most recent proof showing a slender youth, with two big wide-staring eyes, at his first communion.

At the outset, Blandine only pretended to interest herself in everything which concerned the little Kehlmark, and would herself start the conversation about him, solely to please the excellent woman and flatter her touching solicitude, but, by degrees, she was surprised to find herself sharing this worship of the absent boy. She cherished him deeply in her heart even before she had seen 6