The incident of the song was the result of mere chance.
Beauvouloir had intentionally made no preparations; he thought,
wisely, that between two beings in whom solitude had left pure hearts,
love would arise in all its simplicity. The repetition of the air by
Gabrielle was a ready text on which to begin a conversation.
During this promenade Etienne was conscious of that bodily buoyancy
which all men have felt at the moment when a first love transports
their vital principle into another being. He offered to teach
Gabrielle to sing. The poor lad was so glad to show himself to this
young girl invested with some slight superiority that he trembled with
pleasure when she accepted his offer. At that moment the moonlight
fell full upon her, and enabled Etienne to note the points of her
resemblance to his mother, the late duchess. Like Jeanne de
Saint-Savin, Beauvouloir's daughter was slender and delicate; in her,
as in the duchess, sadness and suffering conveyed a mysterious charm.
She had that nobility of manner peculiar to souls on whom the ways of
the world have had no influence, and in whom all is noble because all
is natural.
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