At last her indifferent glance,
travelling over the room, encountered an object that faintly flushed
her cheek, and brightened the eyes, whose orbit of vision was now
limited to the circle immediately about her. Cold indifference had
changed to throbbing impatience. Ah, why did he not come! With whom
was he lingering? She dared not look up lest her glance, like a swift,
bright messenger, should tell him all her heart, and draw him
magnetically to her side. No, he must come of his own choice, and
quickly, else her mood would change. Soft strains of music arose,
melting, aching, dying upon the air. Her heart melted, ached, and
apparently died also, for it turned cold and hard as she glanced at
her watch, and saw that it was more than a minute, nearly _two_
minutes (two eternities they seemed to her) since she began to be glad
that she had come.
The next instant her long-lashed lids were raised in spite of herself,
and she confronted a singularly tall and attractive-looking gentleman,
whose face, from its pensive sadness, had a certain poetic charm. He
begged the honour of the next dance with her.
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