The wretched little room seemed to disappear when she softly glided into it; and even the pretty Minna herself receded into partial obscurity in her mother's presence.

And yet there was nothing in the least obtrusive in the manner of Madame Fontaine, and nothing remarkable in her stature.

Her figure, reaching to no more than the middle height, was the well-rounded figure of a woman approaching forty years of age.

The influence she exercised was, in part, attributable, as I suppose, to the supple grace of all her movements; in part, to the commanding composure of her expression and the indescribable witchery of her manner.

Her dark eyes, never fully opened in my remembrance, looked at me under heavy overhanging upper eyelids.