She sat down in her great arm-chair, drawing up with both hands the silk of her dress, with the gesture of a bird that flaps its wings.

Lucan's visible agitation further enlightened and delighted her.

In such men, armed with powerful but sternly restrained passions, accustomed to control their own feelings, intrepid and calm, agitation is either frightful or charming.
After informing her--which was entirely useless--that his visit to her was one of unusual importance: "Madam," he added, "the request I am about to address you demands, I know, a well-matured answer.

I will therefore beg of you not to give that answer to-day, the more so that it would indeed be painful to me to hear it from your own lips if it where not a favorable one." "Mon Dieu! monsieur!" said Clotilde faintly.
"The baroness, your mother, madam, whom I had the pleasure of seeing during the day, was kind enough to hold out some encouragement to me--in a measure--and to permit me to hope that you might entertain some esteem for me, or at least that you had no prejudice against me.

As to myself madam, I--mon Dieu! I love you, in a word, and I cannot imagine a greater happiness in the world than that which I would hold at your hands.