habits of Jacques Ferrand, who, until then was of Spartan avarice and
meanness (above all as respected others) in all that concerned living. It
is then upon this garnet tapestry, a strong background, warm in color, on
which is delineated the picture we are going to paint.

Of tall and graceful stature, she is a quadroon in the flower of bloom and
youth. The development of her fine shoulders, and of her luxurious person,
makes her waist appear so marvelously slender, that one would believe that
she might use her necklace for a girdle.

As simple as it is coquettish and provoking, her Alsatian costume is of
strange taste, somewhat theatrical, and thus more calculated for the effect
that it was intended to produce.

Her spencer of black cassimere, half open on her swelling bosom, very long
in the body, with tight sleeves and plain back, is embroidered with purple
wool on the seams, and trimmed with a row of small chased silver buttons. A
short petticoat of orange merino, which seems of exaggerated amplitude,
although it fits admirably on the contours of sculptural richness, allows a
glance at the charming leg of the Creole, in the scarlet stockings with
blue clocks, just as it is met with among the old Flemish painters, who
show so complacently the garters of their robust heroines.

Never did artist dream of an outline more pure than her limbs; strong and
muscular above their full calves, they terminated in a small foot, quite at
ease, and well arched in its very small shoe of black morocco with silver
buckles. She is standing before the glass on the chimney-piece. The slope
of her spencer displays her elegant, graceful neck, of dazzling whiteness,
but without transparency.