She gave a little laugh as she stood there that made the ear-rings
quiver, and parted her lips enough to show that her small white teeth
were set edge to edge.
"It can't do any harm," was passing through her mind. "If I'm to be his
sister, he ought to like me. It's no use making him detest me. If he
loves Sophie so much, what harm can it do for him to be pleased with my
beauty? Besides, haven't I a right to my own good looks?"
She kissed her fingers to her reflection, and made a deep courtesy. As
she did so, she caught sight of the little petal-less rose-stalk which
had fallen out of her traveling-dress on to the floor. She picked it up,
and, after turning it idly in her fingers for a moment, she yielded to a
sudden fancy, and fastened it into the bosom of her dress; so that this
symbol of a body from which the soul had departed formed the central and
crowning ornament of the voluptuous and lovely woman.
"There!" ejaculated she, with a smile which did not part her lips, but
seemed to draw her dark eyebrows a little closer together.
"Strange I'm so quiet!" she mused, as she walked slowly to the door.
"What an ordeal I have to go through! I must sit down with Sophie, and
papa, and--him: listen to all the particulars, ask all the proper and
necessary questions, smile and laugh; and it would be well, I suppose,
to rally the lovers archly on the ardor of their affection, and the
suddenness of the consummation.
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