Page:The Writings of Prosper Merimee-Volume 1.djvu/231

Rh trait and brought it to her with an air of indifference. He remarked that the resemblance had never been great, and that the painter had given her a stiffness of pose, and a severity of expression which were not at all natural. From that time his visits to Madame de Piennes were shorter, and he had with her an air of coolness that she had never seen before. She attributed that mood to the first efforts which he was making to keep his promise to her, and to resist his evil inclinations.

A fortnight after the arrival of M. de Salligny, Madame de Piennes went as usual to see her protégée, Arsène Guillot, whom she had not forgotten in the meantime, nor you either, madam, as I hope. After asking her several questions concerning her health and the instructions she was receiving, she observed that the sick girl was more prostrated than she had been for several days, and offered to read to her, to avoid tiring her with the effort of talking. The poor girl would doubtless have preferred to talk, rather than listen to the sort of reading proposed to her, for you may well believe that it was from a very serious book, and Arsène had never read anything but the lightest novels. It was a religious book that Madame de Piennes selected; but I shall not name it, in the first place to avoid