What with the music (Gabrielle of course, retired into space at the first scratching of the 'cello) and experiments with the bucket, and abstruse instructions as to laying on of hands, and the careful study of Mesmer's now frequent letters, the marquis and the governess were constantly thrown together. To flirt with your affinity--two souls denuded of their earthy envelope, side by side on a sofa--may have its delights; but surely to commune together in the flesh at all hours has conspicuous advantages. On the day after her arrival Gabrielle had courteously volunteered to show mademoiselle over the castle, and that lady had overawed her hostess by the variety and minuteness of her knowledge, and bewildered her with searching questions. The abbe, looking on, had pointed out to the chevalier (who, gooseberry-eyed, saw nothing) the amusing contrast presented by the two ladies. Gabrielle was a _Greuze_, without that painter's namby-pamby softness; so fair a thing that the hours almost turned laggard on their plodding way to gaze at her. Tall, slim, erect, with a carriage which is a gift at birth and can never be mimicked by a parvenue; a perfect figure; a colour borrowed from an unopened moss-rose; an expression of calm, as of an unrippled sea in a land-locked bay. By her side moved Aglae Brunelle--taller still, broad-shouldered; with a waist of smaller dimensions than might be expected from the massive moulding of the limbs; an expression changing each moment according to the object brought under the beady eyes; a heavy swinging gait, and a trick of tossing the head. There was something that pleased by its oddity, and was as effective in its way as the sweeping erectness of her companion.