"But you?"
"Oh, I am never cold, you know! Besides, with these men's clothes"
"Will you dress here?"
"Certainly."
"Shall you have time?"
"Do not be uneasy, you little coward! All our servants are busy, discussing the grand affair. Besides, what is there astonishing, when you think of the grief I ought to be in, that I shut myself up?—tell me!"
"No, truly—you comfort me."
"Come and help me."
From the same drawer whence she had taken the mantle that she gave to Mademoiselle d'Armilly, who had already put it on, she took a complete man's costume, from the boots to the coat, and a provision of linen, where there was nothing superfluous, but every requisite. Then, with a promptitude which indicated this was not the first time she amused herself by adopting the garb of the opposite sex, Eugénie drew on the boots and pantaloons, tied her cravat, buttoned her waistcoat up to the throat, and put on a coat which admirably fitted her beautiful figure.
"Oh, that is very good!—indeed, it is very good!" said Louise, looking at her with admiration; "but that beautiful black hair, those magnificent braids, which made all the ladies sigh with envy, will they go under a man's hat like the one I see down there?"
"You shall see," said Eugénie. And seizing with her left hand the thick mass, which her long fingers could scarcely grasp, she seized with her right hand a pair of long scissors, and soon the steel met through the rich and splendid hair, which fell entire at the feet of the young girl, who leaned back to keep it from her coat. Then she passed to the front hair, which she also cut off, without expressing the least regret; on the contrary, her eyes sparkled with greater pleasure than usual under her eyebrows, black as ebony.
"Oh, the magnificent hair!" said Louise, with regret.
"And am I not a hundred times better thus?" cried Eugénie, smoothing the scattered curls of her hair, which had now quite a masculine appearance; "and do you not think me handsomer so?"
"Oh, you are beautiful—always beautiful!" cried Louise. "Now, where are we going?"
"To Brussels, if you like; it is the nearest frontier. We can go to Brussels, Liége, Aix-la-Chapelle; then up the Rhine to Strasburg. We will cross Switzerland, and go down into Italy, by Mount St. Gothard. Will that do?"
"Yes."
