I guessed her to be more than Juliet Capulet's age, indeed, yet stillbetween that and the perfect age of woman. She always was of a larger, fuller,more striking type than Mrs. Apperthwaite, a bolder type, one might putit--though she might have been a great deal bolder than Mrs.Apperthwaite without being bold. Certainly she was handsome enough tomake it difficult for a youthful fellow to keep from staring at her. Shehad an abundance of very soft, unlit hair, worn almost severely, as ifits profusion necessitated repression; and I am compelled to admit thather fine eyes expressed a distant contemplation--obviously of habit notof mood--so pronounced that one of her enemies (if she had any) mighthave described them as "dreamy."

0nly one other of my own sex was present at the lunch-table, a Mr.Dowden, an elderly lawyer and politician of whom I had heard, and towhom Mrs. Apperthwaite, coming in after the rest of us were seated,introduced me. She made the presentation general; and I had theexperience of receiving a nod and a sluggish glance, in which there was asort of dusky, estimating brilliance, from the beautiful lady oppositeme.