Though slightly resembling a girl disguised as a man, his physical
strength was Herculean. His muscles had the suppleness and vigor of
steel springs, and the singularity of his black eyes and fair
complexion was by no means without charm. His beard had not yet
sprouted; this delay, it is said, is a promise of longevity. The
chevalier was dressed in a short coat of black velvet like that of his
mother's gown, trimmed with silver buttons, a blue foulard necktie,
trousers of gray jean, and a becoming pair of gaiters. His white brow
bore the signs of great fatigue, caused, to an observer's eye, by the
weight of painful thoughts; but his mother, incapable of supposing
that troubles could wring his heart, attributed his evident weariness
to passing excitement. Calyste was as handsome as a Greek god, and
handsome without conceit; in the first place, he had his mother's
beauty constantly before him, and next, he cared very little for
personal advantages which he found useless.

"Those beautiful pure cheeks," thought his mother, "where the rich
young blood is flowing, belong to another woman! she is the mistress
of that innocent brow! Ah! passion will lead to many evils; it will
tarnish the look of those eyes, moist as the eyes of an infant!"

This bitter thought wrung Fanny's heart and destroyed her pleasure.

It may seem strange to those who calculate expenses that in a family
of six persons compelled to live on three thousand francs a year the
son should have a coat and the mother a gown of velvet; but Fanny
O'Brien had aunts and rich relations in London who recalled themselves
to her remembrance by many presents. Several of her sisters, married
to great wealth, took enough interest in Calyste to wish to find him
an heiress, knowing that he, like Fanny their exiled favorite, was