And the English officer had watched her face.
So she painted, perfumed and powdered until even the other dancing girls admitted among themselves that Lotus Flower had never looked lovelier.
But still Lotus Flower was not satisfied.
The English officer had watched her eyes.
So she put cosmetics around them to make them darker.
And she put cosmetics into them to make them brighter.
But that was not why he had watched her.
That was not how he had watched her.
He had looked beyond the blackness of cosmetics.
He had looked beyond the whiteness of cosmetics.