Page:The Writings of Prosper Merimee-Volume 3.djvu/177

155 THE ETRUSCAN VASE 155

Countess walked on the damp lawn in silk stock- ings and black satin slippers. ... . Suppose she were to take cold?

" She loves me," said Saint-Clair to himself.

He sighed at his folly, but smiled at Mathilda in spite of himself, tossed between his sorry mood and the gratification of seeing a pretty woman, who had sought, by those trifles which have such priceless value in the eyes of lovers, to please him.

The Countess was radiant with love, play- fully mischievous and bewitchingly charming. She took something from a Japanese lacquered box and held it out to him in her little firmly closed hand.

" I broke your watch the other night," she said; " here it is, mended."

She handed the watch to him and looked at him tenderly, and yet mischievously, biting her lower lip as though to prevent herself from laughing. Oh, what beautiful white teeth she had! and how they gleamed against the ruby red of her lips! (A man looks exceedingly fool- ish when he is being teased by a pretty woman, and replies coldly.)

Saint-Clair thanked her, took the watch and was about to put it in his pocket,

" Look at it and open it," she continued.