Page:The Blind Bow-Boy (IA blindbowboy00vanv).pdf/96

 barker was introducing the little ladies and the wild men. Now he stood before a platform on which was seated a girl who immediately drew the attention of Campaspe's group. She was assuredly an exception, a special jewel. She had the delicate features of a beauty from the Caucasus or an aristocratic Levantine Jewess. Her fragile nose, her exquisitely formed lips, her high cheek-bones had been modelled by an artist. She was a girl, evidently, for whom God had determined to do his best. Short and slender, her body was rhythmic and full of grace. Her head was set above her shoulders in a piquant, bird-like way, while a mass of fluffy brown hair surrounded her pale face and her great green eyes with a delicious shadow. She wore a costume of spangled crimson, cut off at the knees, with a low neck and no sleeves, and on her head a skull-cap fashioned entirely of purple sequins, and surmounted by a feather almost as tall as herself. Her stockings were the colour of the blue-jay's feathers.

What a lovely creature! cried Campaspe.

She's beautiful, said Paul.

Even Harold regarded the girl with curiosity, as she stood up to go through with her act without any of the abandon of the other performers. I'll at ease in her costume and out of place in the show, still it could be seen that she was lacking in self-consciousness. There was no rouge on her face, no paint on her lips.