Before I made this discovery, I was continually wondering how most of the women I knew had managed to get married; but it is a great comfort to me now to know that they are all beautiful (in the eyes of their husbands).
Setting in motion, then, this subtle mechanism, which all women possess (though in some it don’t seem to work), Alice showered down upon Charley, from hazel eyes and sunny hair, from well-turned throat and dimpled hand, from undulating virgin form and momentary ankle-flash,—showered down upon him as she stood there graceful as a gazelle ready to spring, a sparkling wealth of youth and beauty.
No matter what Charley said.
“I am glad you think so,” said she, fluttering down from her perch.
The shining sand was deep; and that’s the reason they walked so slowly; and that’s the reason Alice clung so closely to his arm; and that’s the reason Charley thought he was walking on rosy morning clouds.
“Oh!” cried Alice,—and Charley’s face was corrugated with sudden care: had some envious shell dared bruise her alabaster toe?
“Did you hurt your foot, — — —est?”
“Oh, no; I just remembered that I had forgotten the very thing that I came to the Argo to talk over with you.”
“What was that?”
Alice looked perplexed.