The thought of the
beautiful casket which held the letters of the thousand and one women
of this literary Don Juan made her smile, and she was strongly tempted
to say to her father: "I am not the only one to write to him; the
elite of my sex send their leaves for the laurel wreath of the poet."
During this week Modeste's character underwent a transformation. The
catastrophe--and it was a great one to her poetic nature--roused a
faculty of discernment and also the malice latent in her girlish
heart, in which her suitors were about to encounter a formidable
adversary. It is a fact that when a young woman's heart is chilled her
head becomes clear; she observes with great rapidity of judgment, and
with a tinge of pleasantry which Shakespeare's Beatrice so admirably
represents in "Much Ado about Nothing." Modeste was seized with a deep
disgust for men, now that the most distinguished among them had
betrayed her hopes. When a woman loves, what she takes for disgust is
simply the ability to see clearly; but in matters of sentiment she is
never, especially if she is a young girl, in a condition to see
clearly.
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