an interesting country to a scientist, although he felt that, as Darwin felt about Australia, he would not regret bidding it a long adieu.
It is interesting, although not at all singular, to watch how quickly attachments spring up between people who are thrown together, yet isolated from the rest of the world, and how much more tender and real these enforced attachments become.
The Countess de Bergamont on board the steamer had been courted and made much of in a flippant way, but it was reserved for Anatole to discover that the rich gold of her magnificent tresses had been bestowed upon her by Dame Nature, instead of being the gift of art, and this fact none of her other lovers had ever been certain of—even her late lord and master would not like to have sworn to its genuineness.
As the weeks rolled on, however, Anatole had proof positive, for that the dressing-case of the actress contained none of this fashionable tint the poor baroness slowly but surely showed to all observers. Her tresses, formerly lustrous and radiant, began to dim at the ends and show black at the roots, a singular contrast of colour that was not becoming.
The countess, however, with her natural burnish, and the princess with her pale flaxen continued exactly the same. Anatole remarked this with all a man's delight over trifles, and was tempted to look closer.
Then he discovered that her eyes were more clearly blue than any he had ever gazed into before, and that they could melt with what appeared real tenderness and sentiment. True he had never taken so much time to study eyes before, for his life had been restless and busy, and his pleasures snatched with haste.
The rouge and powder of the actress did not last long
