"Here she is!" Cyril's voice told of relief; and Jean found herself face to face with Evelyn.
That Evelyn should pass anywhere unnoticed was impossible: yet, as she came forward, she showed no consciousness of the many eyes turned in her direction. Jean had received a good deal of attention in the crowd hitherto, appreciated by Cyril, though unnoticed by Oswald or herself; but Jean would win few glances in Evelyn's neighbourhood, young and fresh as she was by comparison. There was that about Evelyn which age could not do away with.
Yet time had told upon her, and more severely than it ought to have done. The pure delicacy of girlish bloom had vanished, leaving a pale skin, with only a faint patch of colouring on either cheek; and she was thinner than of old, too thin and worn for actual beauty. It is only in novels that girls of twenty-nine necessarily bid farewell to youth, and join the ranks of middle-age; but this young widow, close upon twenty-nine, attractive as she still was, might often have passed for thirty-five.
The violet eyes, with their dark fringes, were lovely yet, and would have embellished even a plain face, which Evelyn's face could never be; but the old restless craving in them had deepened, chasing away all girlish sparkle. She had still the look of one for ever dissatisfied with the present, for ever grasping after something unattainable; while the lips were alike more sad and more satirical than four years earlier. With all this, every gesture was so full of grace, every motion was so fascinating, that it was no wonder she should become, wherever she went, a centre of observation.
"Jean! At last!" she said, and her fingers closed round Jean's with a soft pressure which spoke volumes. "My dear, how you have altered; and yet how entirely you are the same!"
She had not seen Oswald for some four or five years, and did not recognise him. Oswald stood as if spellbound.
"My brother—" Jean said, and she put out her hand, smiling.
"Of course—I ought to have known. We are old friends."
Then she turned again to Jean, standing in the middle of the room, oblivious of the crowd around. "It does me good to see you again. I have had such a want lately—to be with you! Have you ever wanted me? Sometimes I think you are the main attraction to home."
"And you will settle down there now?" asked Jean, captivated anew, as she always had been captivated, by the grace of Evelyn's presence. She forgot even Oswald for the moment. "You will not want to go away again directly?"