Then he
saw Emile, who seemed to say from where he stood in the orchestra,
"Just look at that lovely creature there, close beside you!" Lastly,
he saw Rastignac, with Mme. de Nucingen and her daughter, twisting his
gloves like a man in despair, because he was tethered to his place,
and could not leave it to go any nearer to the unknown fair divinity.
Raphael's life depended upon a covenant that he had made with himself,
and had hitherto kept sacred. He would give no special heed to any
woman whatever; and the better to guard against temptation, he used a
cunningly contrived opera-glass which destroyed the harmony of the
fairest features by hideous distortions. He had not recovered from the
terror that had seized on him in the morning when, at a mere
expression of civility, the Magic Skin had contracted so abruptly. So
Raphael was determined not to turn his face in the direction of his
neighbor. He sat imperturbable as a duchess with his back against the
corner of the box, thereby shutting out half of his neighbor's view of
the stage, appearing to disregard her, and even to be unaware that a
pretty woman sat there just behind him.
His neighbor copied Valentin's position exactly; she leaned her elbow
on the edge of her box and turned her face in three-quarter profile
upon the singers on the stage, as if she were sitting to a painter.
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