"What a delightful place!" she said, when they came to the library.
"And there is a whole row of books I want to consult. How I should like
to come and read them."
"Oh, pray do," he answered, "whenever you like. Ladies frequently do
so. You have only to write and tell me when you wish to come, and I
will see that you are properly attended to."
"Thank you," Ideala rejoined. "It is just the very thing for me, for I
am writing a little book, and cannot get on till I have consulted some
authorities on the subject." In the museum they stopped to look at a
mummy.
"Oh, happy mummy!" burst from Ideala, involuntarily.
"Why?" asked Lorrimer, aroused from his apathy.
"It has done with it all, you know," she answered.
Then he turned and looked at her, and she saw that he was something
more than cold, pale-faced, and indifferent, which had been her first
idea of him. His eyes were large, dark grey, and penetrating. She would
have called his face fine, rather than handsome; but the upper part was
certainly beautiful, in spite of some hard lines on it. There was
something in the expression, more than in the formation, of the mouth
and chin, however, that did not satisfy. His head and throat were
splendid; the former narrowed a little at the back, but the forehead
made up for the defect, which was not striking. He made Ideala think of
Tito Melema and of Bayard.
That remark of hers having broken the ice, they began to talk like
human beings with something in common. But Ideala's mood was not
calculated to produce a good impression. The failure of her enterprise
brought on a fit of recklessness such as we understood, and she said
some things which must have made a stranger think her peculiar.
Lorrimer had begun to be amused before they returned to the great
entrance hall. Once or twice he looked at her curiously. "What sort of
a person are you, I wonder?" he was thinking,
"I was dying of dulness," she said, telling him about the place she
came from, "and so I came to see you."
He left her for a moment, but presently returned with his brother.
"You had better come and have some luncheon before you go back," he
said.
And she went.
As they left the building Lorrimer asked her: "Where on earth did my
cousin meet _you?"_--with the slightest possible emphasis. Ideala
understood him, and laughed.
"Upon my word I don't know who introduced her," she answered, standing
on her dignity nevertheless. "I can't remember."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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