“Think of all the beauty in the world that is covered up and overlaid.”
She glanced shyly at the mirror above her dressing-table, and then about her at the furniture, as though it might penetrate to the thoughts that peeped in her mind.
“I wonder,” said Ann Veronica at last, “if I am beautiful? I wonder if I shall ever shine like a light, like a translucent goddess?—
“I wonder—
“I suppose girls and women have prayed for this, have come to this—In Babylon, in Nineveh.
“Why shouldn’t one face the facts of one’s self?”
She stood up. She posed herself before her mirror and surveyed herself with gravely thoughtful, gravely critical, and yet admiring eyes. “And, after all, I am just one common person!”
She watched the throb of the arteries in the stem of her neck, and put her hand at last gently and almost timidly to where her heart beat beneath her breast.
Part 9
The realization that she was in love flooded Ann Veronica’s mind, and altered the quality of all its topics.