He found that she was very bright and quick-witted; but she was
amazingly ignorant and seemed weak and superstitious. The delicacy of
her organs was reproduced in her understanding. When Vitagliani opened
the first bottle of champagne, Sarrasine read in his neighbor's eyes a
shrinking dread of the report caused by the release of the gas. The
involuntary shudder of that thoroughly feminine temperament was
interpreted by the amorous artist as indicating extreme delicacy of
feeling. This weakness delighted the Frenchman. There is so much of
the element of protection in a man's love!

"'You may make use of my power as a shield!'

"Is not that sentence written at the root of all declarations of love?
Sarrasine, who was too passionately in love to make fine speeches to
the fair Italian, was, like all lovers, grave, jovial, meditative, by
turns. Although he seemed to listen to the guests, he did not hear a
word that they said, he was so wrapped up in the pleasure of sitting
by her side, of touching her hand, of waiting on her. He was swimming
in a sea of concealed joy. Despite the eloquence of divers glances
they exchanged, he was amazed at La Zambinella's continued reserve
toward him. She had begun, it is true, by touching his foot with hers
and stimulating his passion with the mischievous pleasure of a woman
who is free and in love; but she had suddenly enveloped herself in
maidenly modesty, after she had heard Sarrasine relate an incident
which illustrated the extreme violence of his temper. When the supper
became a debauch, the guests began to sing, inspired by the Peralta
and the Pedro-Ximenes. There were fascinating duets, Calabrian
ballads, Spanish _sequidillas_, and Neapolitan _canzonettes_.
Drunkenness was in all eyes, in the music, in the hearts and voices of
the guests. There was a sudden overflow of bewitching vivacity, of