Her irregular breathing, and the bright flush which tinged her usually pale cheeks, would have denoted to an eye-witness one of those tempests of the heart, the physical manifestations of which are like those of a fever.

The pale winter flower dying under the snow had suddenly raised its drooping head and recovered its color; the melancholy against which the young woman had so vainly struggled had disappeared as if by enchantment.

A little bird surmounted by a coronet, the whole rather badly sketched, was the strange talisman that had produced this change.
"They were commercial travellers," said the old aunt; "they always pretend to know everything.

One of them, doubtless, when reading the well-known name of Monsieur de Bergenheim upon the wrapper, sketched the animal in question.

These gentlemen of industry usually have a rather good education! But this is giving the affair more importance than it merits.