Page:In a winter city, by Ouida.djvu/280

Rh or dress their hair properly:—it was so strange, too, in a person who, in all other matters, was the very queen of fashion, the very head and front of the most perfect worldliness.

It was very late and daylight quite when Lady Hilda, contrary to her custom, left the ball; she had been happy with a warmth and feverishness of happiness altogether new to her; nothing more had passed between them, but they had been together all the night, although never alone.

She stood a moment in the doorway facing the daylight. Most women are ruined by such a test; she looked but the fairer for it, with the sunrise flush touching her cheeks, and the pearls and the diamonds in her hair.

"I may come to you early," he murmured, as she paused that instant on the step.

"Yes—no. No: I shall be tired. Wait till the evening. You are coming to Mila."

The words were a denial; but on her lips there was sweetness, and in her eyes a soft emotion as she moved onward and downward to the carriage.

He was not dissatisfied nor dismayed. As T