an impulsive character which had not accustomed itself, when at sport in
the open air, to the thraldom of gloves,--very impulsive people even in
cold climates seldom do.

In conveying to us by a few bold strokes an idea of the sensitive, quick-
moved, warm-blooded Henry II., the most impulsive of the Plantagenets,
his contemporary chronicler tells us that rather than imprison those
active hands of his, even in hawking-gloves, he would suffer his falcon
to fix its sharp claws into his wrist. No doubt there is a difference as
to what is befitting between a burly bellicose creature like Henry II.
and a delicate young lady like Isaura Cicogna; and one would not wish to
see those dainty wrists of hers seamed and scarred by a falcon's claws.
But a girl may not be less exquisitely feminine for slight heed of
artificial prettiness. Isaura had no need of pale bloodless hands to
seem one of Nature's highest grade of gentlewomen even to the most
fastidious eyes. About her there was a charm apart from her mere beauty,
and often disturbed instead of heightened by her mere intellect: it
consisted in a combination of exquisite artistic refinement, and of a
generosity of character by which refinement was animated into vigour and
warmth.

The room, which was devoted exclusively to Isaura, had in it much that
spoke of the occupant. That room, when first taken furnished, had a good
deal of the comfortless showiness which belongs to ordinary furnished
apartments in France, especially in the Parisian suburbs, chiefly let
for the summer: thin limp muslin curtains that decline to draw; stiff
mahogany chairs covered with yellow Utrecht velvet; a tall secretaire in
a dark corner; an oval buhl-table set in tawdry ormolu, islanded in the
centre of a poor but gaudy Scotch carpet; and but one other table of dull
walnut-wood, standing clothless before a sofa to match the chairs; the