Her face was round and rather pale; her eyes long and narrow and blue, like the half-open eyes of a little baby; her lips and the lobes of her tiny ears were pale, a little suggestive of anaemia; while across the bridge of her nose ran an adorable little line of freckles.

But it was to her hair that one's attention was most attracted.

Heaps and heaps of blue-black coils and braids, a royal crown of swarthy bands, a veritable sable tiara, heavy, abundant, odorous.

All the vitality that should have given color to her face seemed to have been absorbed by this marvellous hair.

It was the coiffure of a queen that shadowed the pale temples of this little bourgeoise.