Until then, Godefroid had never known the power of voice and eyes when the whole of life is put into them.The glance was no longer a glance, a look, it was a flame, or rather, a divine incandescence, a radiance, communicating life and mind,--it was thought made visible.The voice, with its thousand intonations, took the place of motions, gestures, attitudes.The variations of the complexion, changing color like the famous chameleon, made the illusion, perhaps we should say the mirage, complete.That suffering head lying on the white pillow edged with laces was a whole person in itself.
Never in his life had Godefroid seen so wonderful a sight; he could scarcely control his emotions.Another wonder, for all was wondrous in this scene, so full of horror and yet of poesy, was that in those who saw it soul alone existed.This atmosphere, filled with mental emotions only, had a celestial influence.Those present felt their bodies as little as the sick woman felt hers.They were all mind.As Godefroid contemplated that frail fragment of woman he forgot the surrounding elegancies of the room, and fancied himself beneath the open heavens.It was not until half an hour had passed that he came back to his sense of things about him; he then noticed a fine picture, which the invalid asked him to examine, saying it was by Gericault.
"Gericault," she told him, "came from Rouen; his family were under certain obligations to my father, who was president of the court, and he showed his gratitude by painting that portrait of me when I was a girl of sixteen.""It is a beautiful picture," said Godefroid; "and quite unknown to those who are in search of the rare works of that master.""To me it is merely an object of affection," replied Vanda; "I live in my heart only,--and it is a beautiful life," she added, casting a look at her father in which she seemed to put her very soul."Ah! monsieur, if you only knew what my father really is! Who would believe that the stern and lofty magistrate to whom the Emperor was under such obligations that he gave him that snuff-box, and on whom Charles X.