In the midst of
people who danced with fixed, glassy eyes, or who frowned with
determination to do their duty or to die, and seemed to expect the latter,
or who were pale with the apprehension of collision, or who made visible
their anxiety to breathe through the nose and look pleased at the same
time, these two floated and smiled easily upon life. Three or four steep
steps made the portly and cigarette-smoking Meredith pant like an old man,
but a dance was a cooling draught to him. As for the little Marquise--when
she danced, she danced away with all those luckless hearts that were not
hers already. The orchestra launched the jubilant measures of the deux-
temps with a torrent of vivacity, and the girl's rhythmic flight answered
like a sail taking the breeze.
There was one heart she had long since won which answered her every
movement. Flushed, rapturous, eyes sparkling, cheeks aglow, the small head
weaving through the throng like a golden shuttle--ah, did she know how
adorable she was! Was Tom right: is it the attainable unattainable to one
man and given to some other that leaves a deeper mark upon him than
success? At all events the unattainable was now like a hot sting in the
heart, but yet a sting more precious than a balm. The voice of Brainard
Macauley broke in:
"A white brow and a long lash, a flushing cheek and a soft eye, a voice
that laughs and breaks and ripples in the middle of a word, a girl you
could put in your hat, Mr.
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