 stupid affairs, and inquired of her cousin how she could hear
such a set of prosaic gros-bonnets as her father gathered about him. The moment
the gentlemen were heard to move, her railings ceased: she started up, flew to
the piano, and dashed at it with spirit. Dr. Bretton entering, one of the first,
took up his station beside her. I thought he would not long maintain that post:
there was a position near the hearth to which I expected to see him attracted:
this position he only scanned with his eye; while he looked, others drew in. The
grace and mind of Paulina charmed these thoughtful Frenchmen: the fineness of
her beauty, the soft courtesy of her manner, her immature, but real and inbred
tact, pleased their national taste; they clustered about her, not indeed to talk
science, which would have rendered her dumb, but to touch on many subjects in
letters, in arts, in actual life, on which it soon appeared that she had both
read and reflected. I listened. I am sure that though Graham stood aloof, he
listened too: his hearing as well as his vision was very fine, quick,
discriminating. I knew he gathered the conversation; I felt that the mode in
which it was sustained suited him exquisitely - pleased him almost to pain.
    In Paulina there was more force, both of feeling and character, than most
people thought - than Graham himself imagined - than she would ever show to
those who did not wish to see it. To speak truth, reader, there is no excellent
beauty, no accomplished grace, no reliable refinement, without strength as
excellent, as complete, as trustworthy. As well might you look for good fruit
and blossom on a rootless and sapless tree, as for charms that will endure in a
feeble and relaxed nature. For a little while, the blooming semblance of beauty
may flourish round weakness; but it cannot bear a blast: it soon fades, even in
serenest sunshine. Graham would have started had any suggestive spirit whispered
of the sinew and the stamina sustaining that delicate nature; but I, who had
known her as a child, knew, or guessed, by what a good and strong root her
graces held to the firm soil of reality.
    While Dr. Bretton listened, and waited an opening in the magic circle, his
glance, restlessly sweeping the room at intervals, lighted by chance on me;
where I sat in a quiet nook not far from my godmother and M. de Bassompierre,
who, as usual, were engaged in what
