The prince was willing, charmed by the look in her eyes, by her voice; he was all fire and flame in a second.
"But," said Cornélie, "my escort is waiting outside in the portico. He would not come up: he doesn't know you. It is Mr. Van der Staal."
The prince laughed as he glanced at her. He knew of the gossip at Belloni's. He did not for a moment doubt the existence of a liaison between Van der Staal and Signora de Retz. He knew that they did not care for the proprieties. And he began to like Cornélie very much.
"But I will send to Mr. Van der Staal at once to ask him to come up."
"He is waiting in the portico," said Cornélie. "He won't like to...."
"I'll go myself," said the prince, with obliging vivacity.
He left the room. The ladies stayed behind. Cornélie took off her coat, but kept on her hat, because her hair was sure to be untidy. She looked into the glass:
"Have you your powder on you?" she asked Urania.
Urania took her little ivory powder-box from her bag and handed it to Cornélie. And, while Cornélie powdered her face, Urania looked at her friend and did not understand. She remembered the impression of seriousness which Cornélie had made on her at their first meeting: studying Rome; afterwards, writing a pamphlet on the woman question and the position of divorced women. Then her warnings against marriage and the prince. And now she suddenly saw her as a most attractive, frivolous woman, irresistibly charming, even more bewitching than actually beautiful, full of coquetry in the depths of her grey eyes, which glanced up and down under the curling lashes, simply dressed in a dark silk blouse and a cloth skirt, but with so much distinction and so much coquetry, with so much dignity and yet with a touch of yielding winsomeness, that she hardly knew her.
But the prince had returned, bringing Duco with him. Duco was nervously reluctant, not knowing what had happened, not grasping how Cornélie had acted. He saw her sitting quietly, smiling; and she at once explained that the prince was going to show her his miniatures.