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December Love by Robert Smythe Hichens
page 11 of 800 (01%)

Instantly she fascinated Craven. Instantly he did not care whether she
was old or young, in perfect preservation or a ruin. For she seemed to
him penetratingly human, simply and absolutely herself as God had made
her. And what a rare joy that was, to meet in London a woman of the
great world totally devoid of the smallest shred of make-believe! Craven
felt that if she appeared before her Maker she would be exactly as she
was when she said how do you do to him.

She introduced him to Miss Van Tuyn and the general, made him sit next
to her, and gave him tea.

Miss Van Tuyn began talking, evidently continuing a conversation
which had been checked for a moment by the arrival of Craven. She was
obviously intelligent and had enormous vitality. She was also obviously
preoccupied with her own beauty and with the effect it was having upon
her hearers. She not only listened to herself while she spoke; she
seemed also to be trying to visualize herself while she spoke. In her
imagination she was certainly watching herself, and noting with interest
and pleasure her young and ardent beauty, which seemed to Craven more
remarkable when she was speaking than when she was silent. She
must, Craven thought, often have stood before a mirror and carefully
"memorized" herself in all her variety and detail. As he sat there
listening he could not help comparing her exquisite bloom of youth with
the ravages of time so apparent in Lady Sellingworth, and being struck
by the inexorable cruelty of life. Yet there was something which
persisted and over which time had no empire--charm. On that afternoon
the charm of Lady Sellingworth's quiet attention to her girl visitor
seemed to Craven even greater than the charm of that girl visitor's
vivid vitality.
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