The words were uttered in perfect honesty and simplicity. Her mistress was truly the most beautiful woman she had ever seen.
"Nonsense, child, nonsense--there are others as fair, although I should not fear to stand beside them. It was only a dream, and this but the commencement of it. I was the most beautiful woman in the world. I had the handsomest features, the loveliest figure, and a shape that sculptors would have called perfection. I had the most exquisite dresses that ever were worn, and everything in that way a woman's heart could desire."
"A happy dream, my lady!"
"Wait. I had a palace to live in, in a land where it was summer the whole year through. Such gardens, Dionetta, and such flowers as one only sees in dreams. I had rings enough to cover my fingers a dozen times over; diamonds in profusion for my hair, and neck, and arms,--trunks full of them, and of old lace, and of the most wonderful jewels the mind can conceive. Would you believe it, child, in spite of all this, I was the most miserable woman in the universe?"
"It is hard to believe, my lady."
"Not when I tell you the reason. Dionetta, I was absolutely alone. There was not a single person near me, old or young--not one to look at me, to envy me, to admire me, to love me. What was the use of beauty, diamonds, flowers, dresses? The brightest eyes, the loveliest complexion, the whitest skin--all were thrown away. It would have been just as well if I had been dressed in rags, and were old and wrinkled as Pierre Lamont. Now, what I learn from my dream is this--that beauty is not worth having unless it is admired and loved, and unless other people can see it as well as yourself."
"Everybody sees that you are beautiful, my lady; it is spoken of everywhere."
"Is it, Dionetta, really, now, is it?"
"Yes, my lady. And you are admired and loved."
"I think I am, child; I know I am. So that my dream goes for nothing. A foolish fancy, was it not, Dionetta?--but women are never satisfied. I should never be tired--never, never, of hearing the man I love say, 'I love you, I love you! You are the most beautiful, the dearest, the sweetest!'"