Her figure was so slender that Gabrielle seemed tall; her arms hung pendent with the inertia that some deep thought imparts to the attitude.

Thus standing, she presented a living model of those ingenuous works of statuary a taste for which prevailed at that period,--works which obtained admiration for the harmony of their lines, straight without stiffness, and for the firmness of a design which did not exclude vitality.

No swallow, brushing the window-panes at dusk, ever conveyed the idea of greater elegance of outline.
Gabrielle's face was thin, but not flat; on her neck and forehead ran bluish threads showing the delicacy of a skin so transparent that the flowing of the blood through her veins seemed visible.

This excessive whiteness was faintly tinted with rose upon the cheeks.

Held beneath a little coif of sky-blue velvet embroidered with pearls, her hair, of an even tone, flowed like two rivulets of gold from her temples and played in ringlets on her neck, which it did not hide.