“For this reason,” he muttered in my ear. “Ginevra is neither a pure angel, nor a pure-minded woman.” “Nonsense! you exaggerate: she has no great harm in her.” “Too much for me. _I_ can see where _you_ are blind. Now dismiss the subject. Let me amuse myself by teasing mamma: I will assert that she is flagging. Mamma, pray rouse yourself.” “John, I will certainly rouse you if you are not better conducted. Will you and Lucy be silent, that I may hear the singing?” They were then thundering in a chorus, under cover of which all the previous dialogue had taken place. “_You_ hear the singing, mamma! Now, I will wager my studs, which are genuine, against your paste brooch—” “My paste brooch, Graham? Profane boy! you know that it is a stone of value.” “Oh! that is one of your superstitions: you were cheated in the business.” “I am cheated in fewer things than you imagine. How do you happen to be acquainted with young ladies of the court, John? I have observed two of them pay you no small attention during the last half-hour.” “I wish you would not observe them.” “Why not? Because one of them satirically levels her eyeglass at me? She is a pretty, silly girl: but are you apprehensive that her titter will discomfit the old lady?” “The sensible, admirable old lady! Mother, you are better to me than ten wives yet.” “Don’t be demonstrative, John, or I shall faint, and you will have to carry me out; and if that burden were laid upon you, you would reverse your last speech, and exclaim, ‘Mother, ten wives could hardly be worse to me than you are!’” The concert over, the Lottery “au bénéfice des pauvres” came next: the interval between was one of general relaxation, and the pleasantest imaginable stir and commotion. The white flock was cleared from the platform; a busy throng of gentlemen crowded it instead, making arrangements for the drawing; and amongst these—the busiest of all—re-appeared that certain well-known form, not tall but active, alive with the energy and movement of three tall men. How M. Paul did work! How he issued directions, and, at the same time, set his own shoulder to the wheel! Half-a-dozen assistants were at his beck to remove the pianos, &c.; no matter, he must add to their strength his own. The redundancy of his alertness was half-vexing, half-ludicrous: in my mind I both disapproved and derided most of this fuss. Yet, in the midst of prejudice and annoyance, I could not, while watching, avoid perceiving a certain not disagreeable naïveté in all he did and said; nor could I be blind to certain vigorous characteristics of his physiognomy, rendered conspicuous now by the contrast with a throng of tamer faces: the deep, intent keenness of his eye, the power of his forehead, pale, broad, and full—the mobility of his most flexible mouth. He lacked the calm of force, but its movement and its fire he signally possessed.