Then how
easily could she accentuate her sympathetic listening with this
expressive face! The mobile, somewhat large, beautifully formed mouth,
the piquant little nose with its sensitive nostrils, the eloquent dark
eyes could just say anything she pleased; though, to be sure, however
varying her mood might be, in accordance with what she heard and what
was demanded of her, her normal expression was one of an almost childish
and happy content. She poured her glass of Chianti into a tumbler, and
filled that up with water, and sipped it as a canary sips. She made
little pellets of bread with her dainty white fingers--but that was in
forgetfulness--that was in her eagerness of listening. And at last she
said,
"What is it, Leo?--you wish to frighten me with your trials?--no! for
now you laugh at all these--these mortifications. Then a man is
proud--he is sensitive--he is not patient as a woman--oh, you think you
frighten me?--no, no!"
The fact is, he began to see more and more clearly that she was resolved
upon trying her fortune on the lyric stage; and he thought it his duty
to let her know very distinctly what she would have to encounter.
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