Produced by Suzanne L. Shell, Charles Franks and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team
by SARAH BERNHARDT
1921(English Edition)
In the dining-room of a fine house on the Boulevard Raspail all theDarbois family were gathered together about the round table, on whicha white oil cloth bordered with gold-medallioned portraits of the lineof French kings served as table cover at family meals.
The Darbois family consisted of François Darbois, professor ofphilosophy, a scholar of eminence and distinction; of Madame Darbois,his wife, a charming gentle little creature, without any pretentions;of Philippe Renaud, brother of Madame Darbois, an honest and ablebusiness man; of his son, Maurice Renaud, twenty-two and a painter, afine youth filled with confidence because of the success he had justachieved at the last Salon; of a distant cousin, the familycounsellor, a tyrannical landlord and self-centered bachelor, AdhemarMeydieux, and the child of whom he was godfather, and around whom allthis particular little world revolved.
Esperance Darbois, the only daughter of the philosopher, was fifteenyears old. She was long and slim without being angular. The flowerhead that crowned this slender stem was exquisitely fair, with thefairness of a little child, soft pale-gold, fair. Her face had,indeed, no strictly sculptural beauty; her long flax-coloured eyeswere not large, her nose had no special character; only her sensitiveand clear-cut nostrils gave the pretty face its suggestion of ancientlineage. Her mouth was a little large, and her full red lips opened onsingularly white teeth as even as almonds; while a low Grecianforehead and a neck graceful in every curve gave Esperance a totaleffect of aristocratic distinction that was beyond dispute. Her lowvibrant voice produced an impression that was almost physical on thosewho heard it. Quite without inten