His enchanting countenance was not of a severe and masculine beauty; but one could imagine nothing more pleasing,—and the pleasing was then wonderfully to the purpose. Great size and herculean strength were then out of place, since coats of mail were no longer worn. A dignified and grave air would have been out of date, when the imposing leonine wigs of the age of Louis XIV. were no longer in fashion.
If Létorière wore with such a charming effect rose-powder, laces, ribbons, silk, and precious stones, it was because all his features, all his manners, were endowed with a grace almost feminine, admirably in accordance with the almost effeminate elegance of the costume and ornaments of gentlemen of that period. If he possessed the art of pleasing and seducing in the highest degree, it was because his ravishing countenance could express, by turns, finesse, mockery, haughtiness, audacity, tenderness and melancholy.
According to the witnesses of his time, his expression and the tone of his voice had an especial charm, and an irresistible power, which the partisans of a new science would undoubtedly attribute to magnetic attraction.
But at the epoch of which we speak, he was only a poor young man, and, magnetic or not, his attraction was put to a severe test by the tailor's wife.
Madelaine Landry felt her choler rising at sight of her debtor.
Létorière was soaked by the rain; his hands were blue with cold, and his forehead almost hidden by the wet curls of his beautiful chestnut hair, which he then wore without powder.
When he saw Madelaine, he could not repress a look of astonishment and chagrin; yet he saluted her politely, and, bending on her his great black eyes, at once so sad and soft, he said, in his brilliant and harmonious voice:
"What do you wish of me, Madame?"
"I wish you to pay me for the coat on your back, for it belongs to me—to me and my husband, Landry, tailor to the Marquis"—replied Madelaine, with a sharp voice, insolently staring at her debtor.
A blush of shame colored the young man's cheeks, and a movement of bitter impatience contracted his eyebrows; but he repressed his emotion, and replied mildly: