carelessly upon mine. They were withdrawn at once, and she passed on with
the slightest of frowns--just sufficient rebuke to the person who had
forgotten himself so far as to stare at a woman in a public place. The
maid, too, glanced towards me with a slight flash in her large black
eyes, as though she, also, resented my impertinence, and the little
Japanese spaniel yawned as he was carried past, and showed me a set of
dazzling white teeth. I was in disgrace all round, because I had looked
for a second too long into his mistress' deep blue eyes and pale, proud
face. Nevertheless, I presumed even further. I changed my position, so
that I could see her where she stood in the hall, talking to her maid.

Like a man who looks half unwillingly into the land of hidden things,
knowing very well that his own doom or joy is there, if he has the wit to
see and the strength to grasp it, so did I deliberately falsify the
tenets and obligations of my order, and, standing half in the hall, half
in the office, I stared at the lady and the maid and the spaniel. She was
younger even than I had thought her, and I felt that there was something
foreign in her appearance, although of what nationality she might be I
could not determine. Her hair was of a shade between brown and golden,
and, as she stood now, with her back to me, I could see that it was so
thick and abundant that her maid's art had been barely sufficient to keep
it within bounds. In the front it was parted in the middle, and came
rather low down over her forehead. Now I could see her profile--the
rather long neck, which the lace scarf about her shoulders seemed to
leave a little more than usually bare; the soft and yet firm outline of
features, delicate enough and yet full of character. Just then her maid
said something which seemed to call her attention to me. She half turned
her head and looked me full in the face. Her eyes seemed to narrow a
little, as though she were short-sighted. Then she very slowly and very
deliberately turned her back upon me, and continued talking to her maid.