seemed to be hardly twenty-two years old, and she acted with the
initiative genius, the frankness and the decision of a man, retaining all
the while the tenderness and easy grace of a woman. Although it was
evident that she was accustomed to govern and command, there was nothing
in her look, gesture, or voice which betrayed any assumption of
masculinity. She remained a young girl while in the very act of playing
the virile part of head of the house. But what astonished Julien quite
as much was that she seemed to have received a degree of education
superior to that of people of her condition, and he wondered at the
amount of will-power by which a nature highly cultivated, relatively
speaking, could conform to the unrefined, rough surroundings in which she
was placed.

While Julien was immersed in these reflections, and continued eating with
an abstracted air, Reine Vincart was rapidly examining the reserved,
almost ungainly, young man, who did not dare address any conversation to
her, and who was equally stiff and constrained with those sitting near
him. She made a mental comparison of him with Claudet, the bold
huntsman, alert, resolute, full of dash and spirit, and a feeling of
charitable compassion arose in her heart at the thought of the reception
which the Sejournant family would give to this new master, so timid and
so little acquainted with the ways and dispositions of country folk.
Julien did not impress her as being able to defend himself against the
ill-will of persons who would consider him an intruder, and would
certainly endeavor to make him pay dearly for the inheritance of which
he had deprived them.

"You do not take your wine, Monsieur de Buxieres!" said she, noticing
that her guest's glass was still full.