Page:The Writings of Prosper Merimee-Volume 5.djvu/45

27 said, ' you see it pass down her throat.' The panna Iwinska made me think of those Persian lines."

" Mlle. loulka may possibly embody that phenomenon; but I do not know if she has any blood in her veins. . . . She has no heart. . She is as white and as cold as snow! "

He rose and walked round the room some time without speaking, as though to hide his emotion; then, stopping suddenly —

" Pardon me, he said, " we were talking, I beheve, of folk-poetry. . . . "

" We were. Your Excellency."

" After all it must be admitted that she translated Mi9kiewicz very prettily. . . . ' Frolicsome as a kitten, . . . white as cream, . . . eyes hke stars,' . . . that is her own portrait, do you not agree? "

" Absolutely, Your Excellency."

" With reference to this roguish trick . . . a very iU- judged one, to be siu"e,. . . the poor child is bored to death by an old aimt. She leads the life of a nun."

" At Wilno she went into society. I saw her at the ball given by the officers of the regiment."

" Ah, yes! the society of young officers suits her exactly. To laugh with one, to backbite with another, and to flirt with all of them..