In this servant's costume--in the plain
gown fastening high round her neck, in the neat little white cap at
the back of her head--in this simple dress, to the eyes of all men,
not linen-drapers, at once the most modest and the most alluring that
a woman can wear, the sad changes which mental suffering had wrought
in her beauty almost disappeared from view. In the evening costume of
a lady, with her bosom uncovered, with her figure armed, rather than
dressed, in unpliable silk, the admiral might have passed her by without
notice in his own drawing-room. In the evening costume of a servant,
no admirer of beauty could have looked at her once and not have turned
again to look at her for the second time.
Descending the stairs, on her way to the house-keeper's room, she passed
by the entrances to two long stone corridors, with rows of doors opening
on them; one corridor situated on the second, and one on the first floor
of the house. "Many rooms!" she thought, as she looked at the doors.
"Weary work searching here for what I have come to find!"
On reaching the ground-floor she was met by a weather-beaten old man,
who stopped and stared at her with an appearance of great interest.
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