Arizona -- Fiction; Grand Canyon (Ariz.) -- Fiction; Western stories
Abbott showed her in. She entered the room slowly, a tall woman in a
brown silk suit. Everything about her it seemed to Enoch at first was
brown, except her eyes. Even her skin was a rich, even cream tint.
But her eyes were hazel, the largest, frankest, most intelligent eyes
Enoch ever had seen in a woman's head. And with the eyes went an
expression of extraordinary sweetness, a sweetness to which every
feature contributed, the rather short, straight nose, the full,
sensitive lips, with deep, upturned corners, the round chin.
True beauty in a woman is something far deeper, far less tangible than
mere perfection of feature. One grows unutterably weary of the Venus
de Milo type of face, with its expressionless perfection. And yet, so
careless is nature that not twice in a lifetime does one see a woman's
face in which are combined fineness of intelligence and of character,
and beauty of feature. But Diana was the thrice fortunate possessor of
this combination. She was so lovely that one's heart ached while it
exulted in looking at her. For it seemed a tragic thing that beauty so
deep and so rare should embody itself in a form so ephemeral as the
human body.
She was very slender. She was very erect. Her small head with the
masses of light brown hair shining beneath the simple hat, was held
proudly. Yet there was a matchless simplicity and lack of
self-consciousness about Diana that impressed even the careless
observer: if there was a careless observer of Diana!
Enoch stood beside his desk in his usual dignified calm. His keen eyes
swept Diana from head to foot.
"You are kind to see me so quickly, Mr. Secretary," said Diana, holding
out her hand.
Enoch smiled, but only slightly. It seemed to Diana that she never had
seen so young a man with so stern a face.
"You must have arrived on the same train with your father's note, Miss
Allen. Is this your first trip east?"
"Yes, Mr. Huntingdon," replied Diana, sinking into the chair opposite
Enoch's. "If he had had his way, bless his heart, I wouldn't have had
even a first trip. Isn't it strange that he should have such an
antipathy to New York and Washington!"
The Secretary looked at the girl thoughtfully. "As I recall your
father, he usually had a good reason for whatever he felt or did.
You're planning to stay in Washington, are you, Miss Allen?"
"If I can get work in the Indian Bureau!" replied Diana.
"Why the Indian Bureau?" asked Enoch.
"I'm a photographer of Indians," answered Diana simply. "I've been
engaged for years in trying to make a lasting pictorial record of the
Indians and their ways. I've reached the limit of what I can do
without access to records and books and I can't afford a year of study
in Washington unless I work. That's why I want work in the Indian
Bureau. Killing two birds with one stone, Mr. Secretary."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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