
recognition on the part of the world. It didn't strike you so before? Well, it
seems to me that choice has got more right to be respected than heredity or law.
Moreover, Mme de Lastaola,« she continued in an insinuating voice, »that most
rare and fascinating young woman is, as a friend like you cannot deny, outside
legality altogether. Even in that she is an exceptional creature. For she is
exceptional - you agree?«
    I had gone dumb, I could only stare at her.
    »Oh, I see, you agree. No friend of hers could deny.«
    »Madame,« I burst out, »I don't know where a question of friendship comes in
here with a person whom you yourself call so exceptional. I really don't know
how she looks upon me. Our intercourse is of course very close and confidential.
Is that also talked about in Paris?«
    »Not at all, not in the least,« said Mrs. Blunt, easy, equable, but with her
calm, sparkling eyes holding me in angry subjection. »Nothing of the sort is
being talked about. The references to Mme. de Lastaola are in a very different
tone, I can assure you, thanks to her discretion in remaining here. And, I must
say, thanks to the discreet efforts of her friends. I am also a friend of Mme.
de Lastaola, you must know. Oh, no, I have never spoken to her in my life and
have seen her only twice, I believe. I wrote to her though, that I admit. She or
rather the image of her has come into my life, into that part of it where art
and letters reign undisputed like a sort of religion of beauty to which I have
been faithful through all the vicissitudes of my existence. Yes, I did write to
her and I have been preoccupied with her for a long time. It arose from a
picture, from two pictures and also from a phrase pronounced by a man, who in
the science of life and in the perception of æsthetic truth had no equal in the
world of culture. He said that there was something in her of the women of all
time. I suppose he meant the inheritance of all the gifts that make up an
irresistible fascination - a great personality. Such women are not born often.
Most of them lack opportunities. They never develop. They end obscurely. Here
and there one survives to make her mark - even in history. ... And even that is
not
