TWO PORTRAITS  
Coster de Saint-Victor had not resumed the use of powder; he wore his hair in long, flowing curls, without comb or queue. It was jet-black like his eyelashes, which shaded eyes of a deep sapphire blue, which, according to the expression he chose to give them, were at times gentle and again full of commanding power. His complexion, which was now rather pale owing to his recent loss of blood, was of a rich creamy white; his nose straight, clear-cut and irreproachable; his firm, red lips disclosed magnificent teeth; and the rest of the body, which, thanks to the fashion then in vogue, was clad to display it to the best advantage, was modelled on the lines of Antinous.
The two young people looked at each other for a moment in silence.
"You heard?" asked Aurélie.
"Alas! yes," replied Coster.
"He will sup with me, and it is your fault."
"How so?"
"You made me open the door."
"And you are vexed because he is to sup with you?"
"Of course!"
"Really?"
"I swear it. I am not in a humor to-night to be amiable to people I do not love."
"But to him whom you love?"
"Ah! for him I would be charming," replied Aurélie.
"And suppose," said Coster, "that I could find a way to prevent his supping with you?"
"And?"
"Who would sup with you in his place?"
"What a question. The man who kept him away."
[Pg 271]
"And then you would not be cross?"
"Oh, no!"
"Give me a pledge."
The beautiful courtesan held up her cheek to him, and he pressed a kiss upon it. Just then the bell rang again.
"Ah! this time I warn you that if it is he who has taken it into his stupid head to return, I shall go away," said Coster de Saint-Victor.
Suzette appeared.
"Shall I open the door, madame?" she asked timidly.
"Certainly, open it."
Suzette opened it. A man carrying a large flat basket on his head came in, saying: "Supper for citizen Barras."
"You hear?" asked Aurélie.
"Yes," replied the incroyable; "but, on the word of Coster de Saint-Victor, he shall not eat it."
"Shall I set the table just the same?" asked Suzette.
"Yes," said the young man, darting from the room; "for if he does not eat it, some one else will."
Aurélie followed him with her eyes as far as the door, then, when it had closed behind him, she cried: "My toilet, Suzette, and make me look more beautiful than you ever did before."
"And for which of the two does madame wish to look beautiful?"
"I do not know myself; but, in the meantime, make me as beautiful as possible for myself."
We have already described the costume of the fashionable ladies of the day, and Aurélie was one of them. A member of a good family of Provence, and playing the part which we have outlined, we have thought it best to leave her the name by which she was known at the time of which we write, and which appears in the police records. Her story was like that of nearly all the women of her class, for whom the Thermidorean reaction was a triumph. A young girl without fortune, she was led astray by a young nobleman, who induced her to leave her home, and who[Pg 272] took her to Paris, then emigrated, enlisted in Condé's army, and was killed. She remained alone without other means of support than her beauty and her youth. Picked up by one of the farmers of the public revenues, she soon regained more luxury than she had lost. But the time came when the office of farmer of the revenue was suppressed. The beautiful Aurélie's protector was one of twenty-seven persons who were executed with Lavoisier on the 8th of May, 1794. At his death he left her a large sum of money, of which she had hitherto used only the interest; so that, without being wealthy, the beautiful Aurélie was beyond the reach of want.
Barras, hearing of her beauty and refinement, called upon her, and, after a suitable probation, was accepted as her lover. He was then a handsome man of forty, belonging to a noble family of Provence—a nobility that has been questioned, although those who remember the old saying, "Old as the rocks of Provence, and noble as the Barras," will not doubt the justice of the claim.
At the age of eighteen, Barras was a subaltern in the regiment of Languedoc, but left it to rejoin his uncle, who was go............