It
was impossible to suppose that this jewel should have been so left
by anybody who had had the opportunity and the desire of plunder. It
might have been unfastened by the wearer before she slept for the
sake of more full enjoyment of the balmy breezes of the pine-forest:
and the result of this loosening of the dress was that the light
folds of it opened freely as far down as the waist, so that the
slightest drawing aside of them, such as even the breeze might
effect, was sufficient to leave bare the entire bosom.
On either shoulder and on the bosom lay the large heavy waves of the
rich auburn hair. In death, as she had been in life, she was still a
wonder of beauty; and the two men, the old lawyer and the Professor,
little as, from years, character, and habits of mind, their
imaginations were susceptible of being deeply touched by such a
sight, stood for awhile by the side of the table on which the body
had been laid, and gazed in sad silence on the sight before them.
"One might think she was still sleeping, poor creature," said the
lawyer, after a silence of a few minutes.
"Ay, almost. It is a wonderfully lovely face. Seems difficult to
believe, doesn't it, that any man--. Much less such a man as the
Marchese--should have stood over that figure, and so looking down on
it, have decided on destroying it?" said the Professor.
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