Beatrix by Honoré de Balzac
page 28 of 427 (06%)
page 28 of 427 (06%)
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herself only; she declared it was want of courage; but the truth was
that she would not let her brother spend twenty-five louis for her benefit. That sum would have been so much the less for the good of the household. These two old persons brought out in fine relief the beauty of the baroness. Mademoiselle Zephirine, being deprived of sight, was not aware of the changes which eighty years had wrought in her features. Her pale, hollow face, to which the fixedness of the white and sightless eyes gave almost the appearance of death, and three or four solitary and projecting teeth made menacing, was framed by a little hood of brown printed cotton, quilted like a petticoat, trimmed with a cotton ruche, and tied beneath the chin by strings which were always a little rusty. She wore a /cotillon/, or short skirt of coarse cloth, over a quilted petticoat (a positive mattress, in which were secreted double louis-d'ors), and pockets sewn to a belt which she unfastened every night and put on every morning like a garment. Her body was encased in the /casaquin/ of Brittany, a species of spencer made of the same cloth as the /cotillon/, adorned with a collarette of many pleats, the washing of which caused the only dispute she ever had with her sister-in-law,--her habit being to change it only once a week. From the large wadded sleeves of the /casaquin/ issued two withered but still vigorous arms, at the ends of which flourished her hands, their brownish-red color making the white arms look like poplar-wood. These hands, hooked or contracted from the habit of knitting, might be called a stocking-machine incessantly at work; the phenomenon would have been had they stopped. From time to time Mademoiselle du Guenic took a long knitting needle which she kept in the bosom of her gown, and passed it between her hood and her hair to poke or scratch her white locks. A stranger would have laughed to see the careless manner |
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