The blood
which mounted into her cheeks when he approached and spoke to her, the
unconsciously seeking glance with which she followed him when he went
away, the tone of assumed jest, but genuine reproach, with which she
asked if he had selected another poor victim, when he had talked with
another lady somewhat longer or somewhat more earnestly than usual, were
traitors which but too officiously revealed the secret of her heart. She
did not even defend herself. She had been too short a time at court and
in society to be versed in the strategic arts of love or coquetry.
Almost in their first conversation she had confessed, with charming
frankness, that everybody was warning her against him, she had been told
that he was an extremely dangerous man, she was really a little afraid of
him; but a certain slight shiver in the presence of a handsome monster
was a new and strangely delightful feeling. There was no doubt that his
legendary adventures had exerted the customary bewitching influence upon
her imagination. The daughter of Eve felt the irresistible hereditary
attraction toward the serpent which had already talked so many feebly
resisting hands into plucking the fatal apple.
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