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The Line of Love - Dizain des Mariages by James Branch Cabell
page 36 of 222 (16%)

"Holy Ouen!" scoffed Adhelmar; "these ladies, while well enough, I grant
you, would seem to be callow howlets blinking about that Arabian Phoenix
which Plinius tells of, in comparison with this Lady Venus that is dead!"

"But how," asked Melite, "was this lady fashioned that you commend so
highly?--and how can you know of her beauty who have never seen her?"

Said Adhelmar: "I have read of her fairness in the chronicles of Messire
Stace of Thebes, and of Dares, who was her husband's bishop. And she was
very comely, neither too little nor too big; she was fairer and whiter
and more lovely than any flower of the lily or snow upon the branch, but
her eyebrows had the mischance of meeting. She had wide-open, beautiful
eyes, and her wit was quick and ready. She was graceful and of demure
countenance. She was well-beloved, and could herself love well, but her
heart was changeable--"

"Cousin Adhelmar," declared Melite, flushing somewhat, for the portrait
was like enough, "I think that you tell of a woman, not of a goddess of
heathenry."

"Her eyes," said Adhelmar, and his voice shook, and his hands, lifting a
little, trembled,--"her eyes were large and very bright and of a color
like that of the June sunlight falling upon deep waters. Her hair
was of a curious gold color like the Fleece that the knight Jason sought,
and it curled marvellously about her temples. For mouth she had but a
small red wound; and her throat was a tower builded of ivory."

But now, still staring at her feet and glowing with the even complexion
of a rose, (though not ill-pleased), the Demoiselle Melite bade him
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