The lashes of the eyelids are short, but thick and black as the tip of an ermine’s tail; the eyelids are brown and strewn with red fibrils, which give them grace and strength,—­two qualities which are seldom united in a woman.  The circle round the eyes shows not the slightest blemish nor the smallest wrinkle.  There, again, we find the granite of an Egyptian statue softened by the ages.  But the line of the cheek-bones, though soft, is more pronounced than in other women and completes the character of strength which the face expresses.  The nose, thin and straight, parts into two oblique nostrils, passionately dilated at times, and showing the transparent pink of their delicate lining.  This nose is an admirable continuation of the forehead, with which it blends in a most delicious line.  It is perfectly white from its spring to its tip, and the tip is endowed with a sort of mobility which does marvels if Camille is indignant, or angry, or rebellious.  There, above all, as Talma once remarked, is seen depicted the anger or the irony of great minds.  The immobility of the human nostril indicates a certain narrowness of soul; never did the nose of a miser oscillate; it contracts like the lips; he locks up his face as he does his money.

Camille’s mouth, arching at the corners, is of a vivid red; blood abounds there, and supplies the living, thinking oxide which gives such seduction to the lips, reassuring the lover whom the gravity of that majestic face may have dismayed.  The upper lip is thin, the furrow which unites it with the nose comes low, giving it a centre curve which emphasizes its natural disdain.  Camille has little to do to express anger.  This beautiful lip is supported by the strong red breadth of its lower mate, adorable in kindness, swelling with love, a lip like the outer petal of a pomegranate such as Phidias might have carved, and the color of which it has.  The chin is firm and rather full; but it expresses resolution and fitly ends this profile, royal if not divine.  It is necessary to add that the upper lip beneath the nose is lightly shaded by a charming down.  Nature would have made a blunder had she not cast that tender mist upon the face.  The ears are delicately convoluted,—­a sign of secret refinement.  The bust is large, the waist slim and sufficiently rounded.  The hips are not prominent, but very graceful; the line of the thighs is magnificent, recalling Bacchus rather than the Venus Callipyge.  There we may see the shadowy line of demarcation which separates nearly every woman of genius from her sex; there such women are found to have a certain vague similitude to man; they have neither the suppleness nor the soft abandonment of those whom Nature destines for maternity; their gait is not broken by faltering motions.  This observation may be called bi-lateral; it has its counterpart in men, whose thighs are those of women when they are sly, cunning, false, and cowardly.  Camille’s neck, instead of curving inward at the nape, curves