Page:Georges Eekhoud - Escal Vigor, a novel.djvu/43

Rh down as far as her bold, impudent eyes, that were brown and liquid as molten bronze, the coarse challenge in them being emphasised by a wide straight nose, a greedy mouth, and carnivorous teeth. A thing compact of flesh and instincts was she, craving for power, a fierce ambition alone being able to keep her appetites in check, and preserving her up to the present chaste and inviolate, in spite of her nature's passionate warmth. Not a shadow of feeling or of delicacy. A will of iron and no scruple in reaching her ends. Since the death of her mother, that is to say, since her seventeenth year—she was now twenty-two—she had ruled the farm, the household, and up to a certain point, the parish. It was with her that the pastor had to reckon. Her brother Guidon, a youth of eighteen years, and even her father the burgomaster, trembled when she raised her voice. Being one of the best matches of the island, she had not been a little sought after, but had refused even the wealthiest suitors, for did she not dream of a marriage which should raise her above all the other women of the country? This was the reason even of her virtue. A splendid and