Captain Ethel was duly presented to such of the company as were not personally known to him.
And then, as the evening air was growing damp, the company adjourned from the garden to the house, where tea was soon served.
After tea they went into the lighted drawing-room, where Mr. Billingcoo entertained the ladies with some of his best songs, accompanying himself upon his guitar.
And when he had tired himself and his audience, Erminie delighted her friends with some of her finest music on the pianoforte.
But Erminie’s radiant and dazzling beauty was the one theme of wonder and admiration among her guests. The almost divine splendor of that beauty had escaped their observation in the moonlit garden; but now in the lighted drawing-room it struck them with something like amazement.
“How lovely Miss Rosenthal looks this evening! I never in my life saw, or even imagined anything so brilliantly beautiful as her face,” said sober Dr. Sales to old Major Fielding.
“Yes! I have been watching her. She always was a perfect beauty, you know! but now she’s a perfect angel!” answered the major.
And unconscious of the admiration she was exciting, Erminie played and sang unweariedly.
When she arose from the piano, old Mrs. Billingcoo went to her side, and looking at her attentively, said:
“Your cheeks and lips are like scarlet roses, my love! and your eyes are like diamonds!—Are you sure you are quite well?”