"Why do you force him to say what he does not think?" said Bathilde;
"nothing about me pleases him. Isn't that true?" she added, going up
to Rogron and standing before him. "Look at me, and say if it isn't
true."
Rogron looked at her from head to foot, and gently closed his eyes
like a cat whose head is being scratched.
"You are too beautiful," he said; "too dangerous."
"Why?"
Rogron looked at the fire and was silent. Just then Mademoiselle
Habert entered the room, followed by the colonel.
Celeste Habert, who had now become the common enemy, could only reckon
Sylvie on her side; nevertheless, everybody present showed her the
more civility and amiable attention because each was undermining her.
Her brother, though no longer able to be on the scene of action, was
well aware of what was going on, and as soon as he perceived that his
sister's hopes were killed he became an implacable and terrible
antagonist to the Rogrons.
Every one will immediately picture to themselves Mademoiselle Habert
when they know that if she had not kept an institution for young
ladies she would still have had the air of a school-mistress.
School-mistresses have a way of their own in putting on their caps.
Just as old Englishwomen have acquired a monopoly in turbans,
school-mistresses have a monopoly of these caps. Flowers nod above
the frame-work, flowers that are more than artificial; lying by in
closets for years the cap is both new and old, even on the day it is
first worn.
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