the real object of her efforts, for the glance that she cast through
it can be compared only to that of a miser discovering Aladdin's
treasure. Then she sprang down hastily and returned to her place,
changed the position of her picture, pretended to be still
dissatisfied with the light, pushed a table close to the partition, on
which she placed a chair, climbed lightly to the summit of this
erection, and again looked through the crevice. She cast but one
glance into the space beyond, which was lighted through a skylight;
but what she saw produced so strong an effect upon her that she
tottered.

"Take care, Mademoiselle Ginevra, you'll fall!" cried Laure.

All the young girls gazed at the imprudent climber, and the fear of
their coming to her gave her courage; she recovered her equilibrium,
and replied, as she balanced herself on the shaking chair:--

"Pooh! it is more solid than a throne!"

She then secured the curtain and came down, pushed the chair and table
as far as possible from the partition, returned to her easel, and
seemed to be arranging it to suit the volume of light she had now
thrown upon it. Her picture, however, was not in her mind, which was
wholly bent on getting as near as possible to the closet, against the
door of which she finally settled herself. Then she began to prepare
her palette in the deepest silence. Sitting there, she could hear,
distinctly, a sound which had strongly excited her curiosity the
evening before, and had whirled her young imagination across vast
fields of conjecture. She recognized the firm and regular breathing of
a man whom she had just seen asleep. Her curiosity was satisfied