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Selected Writings of Guy De Maupassant by Guy de Maupassant
page 117 of 350 (33%)
begin to speak.

"Then, without warning, she would break off in the middle of a
sentence, spring up from her seat, and march off so rapidly and
so strangely, that it would, sometimes, put me to my wits' end to
try and discover whether I had done or said anything to displease
or offend her.

"I finally came to the conclusion that this arose from her early
habits and training, somewhat modified, no doubt, in honor of me,
since the first days of our acquaintanceship.

"When she returned to the farm, after walking for hours on the
wind-beaten coast, her long curled hair would be shaken out and
hanging loose, as though it had broken away from its bearings. It
was seldom that this gave her any concern; though sometimes she
looked as though she had been dining sans ceremonie; her locks
having become disheveled by the breezes.

"She would then go up to her room in order to adjust what I
called her glass lamps. When I would say to her, in familiar
gallantry, which, however, always offended her:

" 'You are as beautiful as a planet to-day, Miss Harriet,' a
little blood would immediately mount into her cheeks, the blood
of a young maiden, the blood of sweet fifteen.

"Then she would become abruptly savage and cease coming to watch
me paint. But I always thought:

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