He admired her courage and frankness, which disdaining all subterfuges, went straight and unhesitatingly to the point she desired to reach.

She might be imprudent and reckless, but in his eyes these seemed hardly to be faults, for it is seldom that convent-bred young ladies err in this way.
"But this man," said he, after a long pause,--"how do you manage ever to see him?
"I meet him out walking," replied she, "and I sometimes go to his studio." "To his studio ?" "Yes, I have sat to him several times for my portrait; but I have never done anything that I need blush to own.

You know all now, sir," continued Sabine; "and it has been very hard for a young girl like me to say all this to you.

It is a thing that ought to be confided to my mother." Only those who have heard a woman that they are ardently attached to say, "I do not love you," can picture M.de Breulh's frame of mind.
Had any one else than Sabine made this communication he would not have withdrawn, but would have contested the prize with his more fortunate rival.

But now that Mademoiselle de Mussidan had, as it were, thrown herself upon his mercy, he could not bring himself to take advantage of her confidence.
"It shall be as you desire," said he, with a faint tinge of bitterness in his tone.