Like the
rest of us, he was not disposed to question the sources of his
enjoyment.
It is difficult for a pretty woman to avoid the glances of her
companions in a carriage when their eyes fasten upon her as a visible
distraction to the monotony of a journey. Happy, therefore, in being
able to satisfy the hunger of his dawning passion, without offence or
avoidance on the part of its object, the young man studied the pure
and brilliant lines of the girl's head and face. To him they were a
picture. Sometimes the light brought out the transparent rose of the
nostrils and the double curve which united the nose with the upper
lip; at other times a pale glint of sunshine illuminated the tints of
the skin, pearly beneath the eyes and round the mouth, rosy on the
cheeks, and ivory-white about the temples and throat. He admired the
contrasts of light and shade caused by the masses of black hair
surrounding her face and giving it an ephemeral grace,--for all is
fleeting in a woman; her beauty of to-day is often not that of
yesterday, fortunately for herself, perhaps! The young man, who was
still at an age when youth delights in the nothings which are the all
of love, watched eagerly for each movement of the eyelids, and the
seductive rise and fall of her bosom as she breathed. Sometimes he
fancied, suiting the tenor of his thoughts, that he could see a
meaning in the expression of the eyes and the imperceptible inflection
of the lips.
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