so small that her swinging foot did not reach the table, over which
the trail of her dress extended in a serpentine line. But her face
and figure were those of an adult. The fulness of her corsage and
the roundness of her waist could leave no doubt of that, even for
an old savant like myself. I will venture to add that she was
very handsome, with a proud mien; for my iconographic studies have
long accustomed me to recognise at once the perfection of a type and
the character of a physiognomy. The countenance of this lady who
had seated herself inopportunely on the back of "Cosmography of
Munster" expressed a mingling of haughtiness and mischievousness.
She had the air of a queen, but a capricious queen; and I judged,
from the mere expression of her eyes, that she was accustomed to
wield great authority somewhere, in a very whimsical manner. Her
mouth was imperious and mocking, and those blue eyes of hers seemed
to laugh in a disquieting way under her finely arched black eyebrows.
I have always heard that black eyebrows are very becoming to blondes;
but this lady was very blonde. On the whole, the impression she gave
me was one of greatness.

It may seem odd to say that a person who was no taller than a wine-
bottle, and who might have been hidden in my coat pocket--but that
it would have been very disrespectful to put her in it--gave me
precisely an idea of greatness. But in the fine proportions of the
lady seated upon the "Cosmography of Munster" there was such a proud
elegance, such a harmonious majesty, and she maintained an attitude
at once so easy and so noble, that she really seemed to me a very
great person. Although my ink-bottle, which she examined with an
expression of such mockery as appeared to indicate that she knew in
advance every word that would come out of it at the end of my pen,
was for her a deep basin in which she would have blackened her gold-