It is perhaps unnecessary to mention, Hector's attention having been thus aroused, that Stara Selbourne was possessed of personal attractions, these being of that soft, essentially feminine kind before which the strength of men evaporates.
Looking at her now as she lay, lazily disposed among a heap of pink-and-white cushions, the short-lipped, sensuous mouth half open, and soft, dimpled cheek resting on a tiny white hand; noting, moreover, the fineness of cambric blouse and skirt, the sheen of tightly-stretched silken stocking, and the amber combs in the elaborately curled hair, one knew instinctively that this daintiness was not mere outward show, but part of her nature, and that, strip off the outward husk, no incongruities would stand revealed, no monstrosities of wool and flannel, the unseen would be a wonder of snowy and beribboned delicacy. In hunting parlance indeed, Stara, even where no such catastrophe was to be apprehended, was, and always would be, dressed "for a fall."
Nevertheless, despite this general appearance of femininity, signs were to be observed of other characteristics, signs of a somewhat startlingly contradictory nature. The chin, for instance, though soft and white, was most unfemininely firm, almost hard; while the eyes, long in shape and black-lashed though they were, were not of blue, as to be in keeping they ought to have been, but of light grey, clear, steady and rather cold—in no way languishing.
These eyes she now kept fixed on her book, firmly determined to run no risk of meeting even one of the frequent glances directed at her from the other end of the deck; of which glances, as also of Hector's mental restlessness, she was at the same time perfectly aware.
"Let him come and talk if he wants to," she thought impatiently; "ogling is a practice I abominate; it's a servant-maid's trick." And Stara at last turned another page, forcing her attention once more back to the relation of the adventures of one Mademoiselle de Maupin, Hector at the same time returning to the theory of heredity as expounded by Arthur Schopenhauer of pessimistic notoriety.
"Physical qualities from the father's, mental from the mother's side," he reflected, laying the book down again. "Well, that seems true, my mother was clever enough, though a bit cranky. He's a bit out, though, about the other, poor old governor was rather an ugly chap."
He yawned, stretched himself, and once more his eyes wandered to the far end of the deck. "Still there," he murmured. "Wherever I am, there she is too; must do it on purpose; wants me to talk to her, I suppose; doesn't know I'm married; if she did, her interest would very soon die. Bah! what humbug it is, that a man should be debarred from amusement because of a mere conventional tie. No wonder those other fellows, Nelson, Suvarov, and the rest, revolted; they couldn't stand restraint any more than I can.
"Mustn't, you're married, family man and so forth, it's just that makes one want to do things. Damn it, for years I've never looked at a woman except Lucy, and see the result, I've become a fossil; don't even know how to begin. I've been only half alive all this time, and I want to live, and I think somehow that girl would help me. She looks as if she'd love well. I've a good mind to try it, just for the voyage. I'm strong enough, thank God, to pull up when I want to. Hanged if I don't let myself go all I know; no, I'm bothered if I do; she'd only laugh at me if she knew and that I could not stand."
Again he took up his book and began to turn over the pages. "'Ethics.' Don't know what they are, and don't want to either. 'Man's need for metaphysics.' Have none myself. Ah! 'On Woman;' that sounds better. Oho!" reading; "this is capital.
"'Injustice is the fundamental failing of the female character. This arises from the want of reason and reflection, and is assisted by the fact that they, as the weaker sex, are driven by nature to have recourse not to force but to cunning, hence their instinctive treachery and irremediable tendency to lying. For as nature has armed the lion with claws, the bull with horns, and the sepia with ink which blackens water, so has nature armed woman with powers of deception for her protection.'