As soon as the curtain had fallen again I repaired to her box and
was ushered in by Pickering with zealous hospitality. His glowing smile
seemed to say to me, "Ay, look for yourself, and adore!" Nothing could
have been more gracious than the lady's greeting, and I found, somewhat
to my surprise, that her prettiness lost nothing on a nearer view. Her
eyes indeed were the finest I have ever seen--the softest, the deepest,
the most intensely responsive. In spite of something faded and jaded in
her physiognomy, her movements, her smile, and the tone of her voice,
especially when she laughed, had an almost girlish frankness and
spontaneity. She looked at you very hard with her radiant gray eyes, and
she indulged while she talked in a superabundance of restless, rather
affected little gestures, as if to make you take her meaning in a certain
very particular and superfine sense. I wondered whether after a while
this might not fatigue one's attention; then meeting her charming eyes, I
said, Not for a long time. She was very clever, and, as Pickering had
said, she spoke English admirably. I told her, as I took my seat beside
her, of the fine things I had heard about her from my friend, and she
listened, letting me go on some time, and exaggerate a little, with her
fine eyes fixed full upon me.
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