Captain Paul by Alexandre Dumas

Look kindly on them; I cannot bear Severity; My heart's so tender, should you charge me rough, I should but weep and answer you with sobbing; But use me gently, like a loving brother, And search through all the secrets of my soul. Otway.

Marguerite d'Auray, whose history the reader has become aquainted with, from the conversation between Captain Paul and Emanuel, was one of those delicate, pale beauties, who bear impressed upon their features the characteristic stamp of high birth. At the first glance, from the soft flexibility of her form, the whiteness of her skin, the shape of her hands and tapering fingers, with their thin, rosy and transparent nails, could be discerned that she was descended from an ancient race. It was evident that her feet, so small that both of them could have been placed in the foot-mark of most women, had never walked excepting on carpeted saloons or on the flowery turf of a park.