Certainly it would have been too slight for those men whose scale of admiration runs—so much in the pound. But the architecture of the form was perfect. Each line was worthy of study in itself as a thing of beauty, and the harmony of them all in the whole figure, whether it moved or was at rest, gave an indefinable pleasure to the eye.
What a lovely thing it was this form, seeming to hold in itself the light and pleasure and glow of life, as it stood, the only brilliant thing in that cold north room.
And it might be mine, might have belonged to me long since if ... well if ... that was just it.
I made a step forward and she turned.
"Oh, I'm so glad you've come," she said, laying her hand in mine. "I want you so much."
We shook hands.
Although we were cousins, and had been engaged for the last two years, this was our invariable method of greeting and leave-taking.
I had never kissed her, nor was I sure whether I ever really desired to.
There were times when the thought that precedes the impulse or the impulse that gives birth to the thought came to me, but always when I was away from her and not with her, and consequently the desire culminated in nothing.
When I was actually beside her all my own feelings seemed suddenly held in suspension, just as one stops with feet chained when one discovers one has come abruptly upon sacred ground.