Reuben retained his tone of ironical formality, but looking into her uplifted face his jealousy faded and was forgotten.
She held up her card with a smile; it was quite full.
Reuben took it gently from her hand, glanced at it, and tore it into fragments.
Judith said not a word.
To both of them the little act seemed fraught with strange significance, the beginning of a new phase in their mutual relations.
Reuben gave her his arm in silence; she took it, half frightened, and he led her to the furthermost corner of the crimson recess.
The dancers, overflowing from the ball-room beyond, closed about it, and they were screened from sight.
Reuben leaned forward, looking at her with eyes that seemed literally alight with some inward flame. The precautions, the restraints, the reserves which had hitherto fenced in their intercourse, were for the moment overthrown. Each was swept away on a current of feeling which was bearing them who knew whither?
To Judith, Reuben was no longer a commodity of the market with a high price set on him; he was a piteous human creature who entreated her with his eyes, yet held her chained: her suppliant and her master.
A soft wind blew in suddenly through the red curtains and stirred the hair on Judith’s forehead.