She turned towards me and opened her eyes. I could not see them.
“Monsieur,” she said, in a very gentle voice, “what do you want?”
When about to speak to this being I experienced the sensation one would
feel in presence of a sow to which it behoved one to say: “Madam.”
I did not quite know what to reply, and thought for a moment. Just then
my gaze, wandering towards the window, fell upon a sort of picture that
hung outside like a sign. It was a sign, as a matter of fact, a picture
of a young and pretty woman, decolletée, wearing an enormous beplumed
hat and carrying an infant in her arms; the whole in the style of the
chimney boards of the time of Louis XVIII. Above the picture stood out
this inscription in big letters: