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as an apathetic fascination;  partly of horror; as of Europa in mid ocean with her bull。

On the 10th November 1749 there sat two of the foreign  gentlemen in the wine…seller's shop。  They were both handsome  men of a good presence; richly dressed。  The first was  swarthy and long and lean; with an alert; black look; and a  mole upon his cheek。  The other was more fair。  He seemed  very easy and sedate; and a little melancholy for so young a  man; but his smile was charming。  In his grey eyes there was  much abstraction; as of one recalling fondly that which was  past and lost。  Yet there was strength and swiftness in his  limbs; and his mouth set straight across his face; the under  lip a thought upon side; like that of a man accustomed to  resolve。  These two talked together in a rude outlandish  speech that no frequenter of that wine…shop understood。  The  swarthy man answered to the name of BALLANTRAE; he of the  dreamy eyes was sometimes called BALMILE; and sometimes MY  LORD; or MY LORD GLADSMUIR; but when the title was given him;  he seemed to put it by as if in jesting; not without  bitterness。

The mistral blew in the city。  The first day of that wind;  they say in the countries where its voice is heard; it blows  away all the dust; the second all the stones; and the third  it blows back others from the mountains。  It was now come to  the third day; outside the pebbles flew like hail; and the  face of the river was puckered; and the very building…stones  in the walls of houses seemed to be curdled with the savage  cold and fury of that continuous blast。  It could be heard to  hoot in all the chimneys of the city; it swept about the  wine…shop; filling the room with eddies; the chill and gritty  touch of it passed between the nearest clothes and the bare  flesh; and the two gentlemen at the far table kept their  mantles loose about their shoulders。  The roughness of these  outer hulls; for they were plain travellers' cloaks that had  seen service; set the greater mark of richness on what showed  below of their laced clothes; for the one was in scarlet and  the other in violet and white; like men come from a scene of  ceremony; as indeed they were。

It chanced that these fine clothes were not without their  influence on the scene which followed; and which makes the  prologue of our tale。  For a long time Balmile was in the  habit to come to the wine…shop and eat a meal or drink a  measure of wine; sometimes with a comrade; more often alone;  when he would sit and dream and drum upon the table; and the  thoughts would show in the man's face in little glooms and  lightenings; like the sun and the clouds upon a water。  For a  long time Marie…Madeleine had observed him apart。  His  sadness; the beauty of his smile when by any chance he  remembered her existence and addressed her; the changes of  his mind signalled forth by an abstruse play of feature; the  mere fact that he was foreign and a thing detached from the  local and the accustomed; insensibly attracted and affected  her。  Kindness was ready in her mind; it but lacked the touch  of an occasion to effervesce and crystallise。  Now Balmile  had come hitherto in a very poor plain habit; and this day of  the mistral; when his mantle was just open; and she saw  beneath it the glancing of the violet and the velvet and the  silver; and the clustering fineness of the lace; it seemed to  set the man in a new light; with which he shone resplendent  to her fancy。

The high inhuman note of the wind; the violence and  continuity of its outpouring; and the fierce touch of it upon  man's whole periphery; accelerated the functions of the mind。   It set thoughts whirling; as it whirled the trees of the  forest; it stirred them up in flights; as it stirred up the  dust in chambers。  As brief as sparks; the fancies glittered  and succeeded each other in the mind of Marie…Madeleine; and  the grave man with the smile; and the bright clothes under  the plain mantle; haunted her with incongruous explanations。   She considered him; the unknown; the speaker of an unknown  tongue; the hero (as she placed him) of an unknown romance;  the dweller upon unknown memories。  She recalled him sitting  there alone; so immersed; so stupefied; yet she was sure he  was not stupid。  She recalled one day when he had remained a  long time motionless; with parted lips; like one in the act  of starting up; his eyes fixed on vacancy。  Any one else must  have looked foolish; but not he。  She tried to conceive what  manner of memory had thus entranced him; she forged for him a  past; she showed him to herself in every light of heroism and  greatness and misfortune; she brooded with petulant intensity  on all she knew and guessed of him。  Yet; though she was  already gone so deep; she was still unashamed; still  unalarmed; her thoughts were still disinterested; she had  still to reach the stage at which … beside the image of that  other whom we love to contemplate and to adorn … we place the  image of ourself and behold them together with delight。

She stood within the counter; her hands clasped behind her  back; her shoulders pressed against the wall; her feet braced  out。  Her face was bright with the wind and her own thoughts;  as a fire in a similar day of tempest glows and brightens on  a hearth; so she seemed to glow; standing there; and to  breathe out energy。  It was the first time Ballantrae had  visited that wine…seller's; the first time he had seen the  wife; and his eyes were true to her。

'I perceive your reason for carrying me to this very draughty  tavern;' he said at last。

'I believe it is propinquity;' returned Balmile。

'You play dark;' said Ballantrae; 'but have a care!  Be more  frank with me; or I will cut you out。  I go through no form  of qualifying my threat; which would be commonplace and not  conscientious。  There is only one point in these campaigns:  that is the degree of admiration offered by the man; and to  our hostess I am in a posture to make victorious love。'

'If you think you have the time; or the game worth the  candle;' replied the other with a shrug。

'One would suppose you were never at the pains to observe  her;' said Ballantrae。

'I am not very observant;' said Balmile。  'She seems comely。'

'You very dear and dull dog!' cried Ballantrae; 'chastity is  the most besotting of the virtues。  Why; she has a look in  her face beyond singing!  I believe; if you was to push me  hard; I might trace it home to a trifle of a squint。  What  matters?  The height of beauty is in the touch that's wrong;  that's the modulation in a tune。  'Tis the devil we all love;  I owe many a conquest to my mole' … he touched it as he spoke  with a smile; and his eyes glittered; … 'we are all  hunchbacks; and beauty is only that kind of deformity that I  happen to admire。  But come!  Because you are chaste; for  which I am sure I pay you my respects; that is no reason why  you should be blind。  Look at her; look at the delicious nose  of her; look at her cheek; look at her ear; look at her hand  and wrist … look at the whole baggage from heels to crown;  and tell me if she wouldn't melt on a man's tongue。'

As Ballantrae spoke; half jesting; half enthusiastic; Balmile  was constrained to do as he was bidden。  He looked at the  woman; admired her excellences; and was at the same time  ashamed for himself and his companion。  So it befell that  when Marie…Madeleine raised her eyes; she met those of the  subject of her contemplations fixed directly on herself with  a look that is unmistakable; the look of a person measuring  and valuing another … and; to clench the false impression;  that his glance was instantly and guiltily withdrawn。  The  blood beat back upon her heart and leaped again; her obscure  thoughts flashed clear before her; she flew in fancy straight  to his arms like a wanton; and fled again on the instant like  a nymph。  And at that moment there chanced an interruption;  which not only spared her embarrassment; but set the last  consecration on her now articulate love。

Into the wine…shop there came a French gentleman; arrayed in  the last refinement of the fashion; though a little tumbled  by his passage in the wind。  It was to be judged he had come  from the same f

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