Noemi understood.
"As a peasant girl," said she.
"You silly creature!"
Noemi laughed.
Jeanne sighed out the usual reproach:
"You do not love me! You do not love me!"
Then Noemi became serious, and asked her if she really wished to entice
him back again--her precious Maironi?
"I want to be beautiful!" Jeanne exclaimed. "There!"
She really was beautiful at that moment, in her dressing-gown of a warm
yellow tint, with her streaming dark hair down to a hand's-breadth below
her waist. She looked far lovelier and younger than the night before.
Her eyes shone with that look of intense animation which, in former
days, they had been wont to assume when Maironi entered the room, or
even when she heard his step outside.
"I wish I had the _toilette_ I wore at Praglia," she said. "I should
like to appear before him in my green fur-lined cloak, now, in May! I
should like him to see at a glance how unchanged I am, and how much I
wish to remain unchanged! Oh! my God, my God!"
With a sudden impulse she threw her arms about Noemi's neck, and pressed
her face against her shoulder, stifling a sob and murmuring words Noemi
could not distinguish.
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