In a parlor in the style of Louis XV, whose walls were covered with shepherds paying court to shepherdesses, beautiful ladies in hoop-petticoats, and gallant gentlemen in wigs, a very old woman who seemed dead as soon as she ceased to move was almost lying down in a large easy-chair, while her thin, mummy-like hands hung down, one at each side of her. Her eyes were gazing languidly towards the distant horizon as if they sought to follow through the park visions of her youth. Through the open window every now and then came a breath of air laden with the scent of grass and the perfume of flowers. It made her white locks flutter around her wrinkled forehead and old memories, through her brain. Beside her on a tapestried stool, a young girl with long, fair hair hanging in plaits over her neck, was embroidering an altar-cloth. There was a pensive expression in her eyes, and it was easy to see that, while her agile fingers worked, her brain was busy with thoughts. But the old lady suddenly turned round her head. "Berthe," she said, "read something out of the newspapers for me, so that I may still know sometimes what is happening in the world." The young girl took up a newspaper, and cast a rapid glance over it. "There is a great deal about politics, grandmamma; am I to pass it by?" "Yes, yes, darling. Are there no accounts of love affairs? Is gallantry, then, dead in France, that they no longer talk about abductions or adventures as they did formerly?" The girl made a long search through the columns of the newspaper. "Here is one," she said. "It is entitled: 'A Love-Drama!'" The old woman smiled through her wrinkles. "Read that for me," she said. And Berthe commenced. It was a case of vitriol-throwing. A wife, in order to avenge herself on her husband's mistress, had burned her face and eyes. She had left the Assize Court acquitted, declared to be innocent, amid the applause of the crowd. The grandmother moved about excitedly in her chair, and exclaimed: "This is horrible--why, it is perfectly horrible! See whether you can find anything else to read for me, darling." Berthe again made a search; and further down in the reports of criminal cases at which her attention was still directed. She read: "'Gloomy Drama.--A shop girl, no longer young, allowed herself to yield to the embraces of a young man. Then, to avenge herself on her lover, whose heart proved fickle, she shot him with a revolver. The unhappy man is maimed for life. The Jury, consisting of men of moral character, took the part of the murderess--regarding her as the victim of illicit love, and honorably acquitted her.'" This time the old grandmother appeared quite shocked, and, in a trembling voice, she said.