At this language, which was not without a sort of bold natural eloquence,
Jacques Ferrard shuddered, at the savage and almost ferocious expression of
the face of Cecily, who, with heaving bosom, expanded nostril, haughty
mouth, fixed on him her large black and burning eyes.

Never had she appeared so lovely.

"Speak, speak again!" cried he, passionately; "you speak seriously this
time. Oh! if I could----"

"One can do what one wishes," said Cecily, abruptly.

"But----"

"But I tell you that if you wish, repulsive as you are----"

"Yes, I will do it! Try me, try me!" cried Jacques Ferrand, more and more
excited.

Cecily continued, approaching nearer, and fixing on the notary a
penetrating look, "For a woman loving a handsome youth would know," resumed
the Creole, "that she would have an exorbitant caprice to satisfy; that the
boys would look at their money if they had any, or, if they had none, to a
mean trick, while the old tiger----"

"Would regard nothing, do you understand? nothing. Fortune, honor, he would
know how to sacrifice all he would!"

"True," said Cecily, placing her charming fingers on the bony and hairy
hands of Jacques Ferrand, who, for the first time, touched the soft and