Pretty Marquise

They looked rapidly through several rooms and failed to find her indoors,
and they went outside, not exchanging a word, and though Harkless was a
little lame, Tom barely kept up with his long stride. On the verandas
there were fairy lamps and colored incandescents over little tables, where
people sat chatting. She was not there. Beyond was a terrace, where a
myriad of Oriental lanterns outlined themselves clearly in fantastically
shaped planes of scarlet and orange and green against the blue darkness.
Many couples and groups were scattered over the terrace, and the young men
paused on the steps, looking swiftly from group to group. She was not
there.

"We haven't looked in the dancing-room," said Tom, looking at his
companion rather sorrowfully. John turned quickly and they reentered the
house.

He had parted from her in the blackness of storm with only the flicker of
lightning to show her to him, but it was in a blaze of lights that he saw
her again. The dance was just ended, and she stood in a wide doorway, half
surrounded by pretty girls and young men, who were greeting her. He had
one full look at her. She was leaning to them all, her arms full of
flowers, and she seemed the radiant centre of all the light and gaiety of
the place. Even Meredith stopped short and exclaimed upon her; for one
never got used to her; and he remembered that whenever he saw her after
absence the sense of her beauty rushed over him anew. And he believed the
feeling on this occasion was keener than ever before, for she was prettier
than he had ever seen her.