The bend of her slender body at the waist, the pose
of her head, the line of her shoulder, the suggestion of dimple in
her elbow--all were so many separate allurements to the kindling eye
of love.
Terence certainly added little to the general brilliancy and gaiety
of the occasion, for he stood in a corner and looked at Patricia
whenever he was not dancing with her, 'all eye when one was present,
all memory when one was gone.'
Chapter XIII. A Penelope secret.
Shortly after midnight our own little company broke up, loath to
leave the charming spectacle. The guests departed with the greatest
reluctance, having given Dawson a half-sovereign for waiting up to
lock the door. Mrs. Beresford said that it seemed unendurable to
leave matters in such an unfinished condition, and her son promised
to come very early next morning for the latest bulletins.
"I leave all the romances in your hands," he whispered to me; "do
let them turn out happily, do!"
Salemina also retired to her virtuous couch, remembering that she
was to visit infant schools with a great educational dignitary on
the morrow.
Francesca and I turned the gas entirely out, although we had been
sitting all the evening in a kind of twilight, and slipping on our
dressing-gowns sat again at the window for a farewell peep into the
past, present, and future of the 'Brighthelmston set.
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