That it should thrill
along all his senses with this unreasoning rapture was most astonishing.
He had never been a fellow to "fall" for every girl he met, and now he
felt himself gradually yielding to the beautiful spell about him with a
kind of wonder.
The lights and coloring of the room that had smote his senses
unpleasantly when he first entered had thrown him now into a kind of
delicious fever. The neglected wine sparkling dimly in the costly
glasses seemed a part of it. He felt an impulse to reach out, seize a
glass, and drain it. What if he should? What if he flung away his ideas
and principles and let the moment sway him as it would, just for once?
Why should he not try life as it presented itself?
These fancies fled through his brain like phantoms that did not dare to
linger. His was no callow mind, ignorant of the world. He had thought
and read and lived his ideas well for so young a man. He had vigorously
protested against weakness of every kind; yet here he was feeling the
drawing power of things he had always despised; reveling in the wine-red
color of the room, in the pit-like glow of the fire; watching the play
of smiles and wistfulness on the lovely face of the girl. He had often
wondered what others saw so attractive in her beyond a pretty face. But
now he understood. Her child-like speech and pretty little ways
fascinated him. Perhaps she was really innocent of her own charms.
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