All these circumstances which I had so often witnessed came back
to my memory, and I regretted her death as one might regret the
destruction of a beautiful work of art.

It was impossible to see more charm in beauty than in that of
Marguerite. Excessively tall and thin, she had in the fullest
degree the art of repairing this oversight of Nature by the mere
arrangement of the things she wore. Her cashmere reached to the
ground, and showed on each side the large flounces of a silk
dress, and the heavy muff which she held pressed against her
bosom was surrounded by such cunningly arranged folds that the
eye, however exacting, could find no fault with the contour of
the lines. Her head, a marvel, was the object of the most
coquettish care. It was small, and her mother, as Musset would
say, seemed to have made it so in order to make it with care.

Set, in an oval of indescribable grace, two black eyes,
surmounted by eyebrows of so pure a curve that it seemed as if
painted; veil these eyes with lovely lashes, which, when drooped,
cast their shadow on the rosy hue of the cheeks; trace a
delicate, straight nose, the nostrils a little open, in an ardent
aspiration toward the life of the senses; design a regular mouth,
with lips parted graciously over teeth as white as milk; colour
the skin with the down of a peach that no hand has touched, and
you will have the general aspect of that charming countenance.
The hair, black as jet, waving naturally or not, was parted on
the forehead in two large folds and draped back over the head,
leaving in sight just the tip of the ears, in which there
glittered two diamonds, worth four to five thousand francs each.
How it was that her ardent life had left on Marguerite's face the