Burnett took him all around and introduced him to people in general, and
people in general seemed to him to merely bring the fact of her
pre-eminence more vividly than ever before his mind. He found himself
looking everywhere but at them too, and listening with an acutely
sensitive ear for sounds quite other than those of their various lips. But
eternal disappointment rewarded his eyes and ears. She was nowhere.
So he talked blindly about nothing to all the nobodies and laughed
stupidly over all their stupidities until--suddenly and without any
warning--a fearful jump in his throat sent the mercury in his constitution
shooting up to 160, and he saw, heard, felt, gasped, and knew, that that
radiant angel in silver tissue who had just entered the farther end of the
room was indubitably Herself.
(Married!)
He quite forgot who, what and where he was. There was a somebody talking
to him--a very awful and bony young lady, but she faded so completely out
of the general scheme of his immediate present that all the use he made of
her was to stare over her head at the distant apparition that was become,
now and forever, his All in All. The distant apparition had not lied when
she had told him up in her brother's room that she too, looked "nice" when
dressed for dinner. Only the word "nice" was as watered milk to the
champagne of her appearance. She was gowned superbly and her throat and
arms were half bared by the folds of silvered lace; her hair fitted into
the back of her neck in the smoothest mass of puffs and coils, and the
curl on her forehead was more distracting than ever.
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