"Oh, everything is beautiful, beautiful, and I shall die if I do
not kiss you."
"You must be kept alive at all hazards," I laughed; and this time
I did not reject her. But it was a child around whom my arms
closed. An inner flash, accompanied by a spasm of pain, revealed
it, and changed a passionate desire to gentleness.
"There," said I, after she had released herself and flown to open
the drawers of the new toilette table, where lay some odds and
ends of jewelry I had purchased for her. "You have been saved
from extinction. The next deadly peril is hunger. I give you a
quarter of an hour."
She came down to dinner in a low-necked frock, wearing the
necklace and bangle; and, child that she is, in her hand she
carried the silver-backed mirror. I believe she has taken it to
bed with her, as a seven-year-old does its toy. She certainly
kept it by her all the evening and admired herself therein
unashamedly like the traditional Lady from the Sea. Once,
desiring to show me the ravishing beauty of a turquoise pendant,
she bent her neck forward, as I sat, so as to come within reach
of my nearsighted eyes (it is a superstition of hers that I am
nearly blind without my glasses), and quite naturally slid onto
my knee.
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