Chapter 32 - Page 2

well dressed and perfectly
fitted young man turned involuntarily in the particular London ball
room in which Mrs. Gareth-Lawless' daughter watched the dancers,
and looked unintentionally into the eyes of a girl standing
for a moment near the wide entrance doors, the inexplicable and
unconquerable Force reconnected its currents again.

Donal Muir's eyes only widened a little for a second's time. He
had not known why he had suddenly looked around and he did not
know why he was conscious of something which startled him a little.
You could not actually stare at a girl because your eyes chanced
to get entangled in hers for a second as you danced past her. It
was true she was of a startling prettiness and there was something--.
Yes, there was SOMETHING which drew the eye and--. He did not know
what it was. It had actually given him a sort of electric shock.
He laughed at himself a little and then his open brow looked
puzzled for a moment.

"You saw Miss Lawless," said Sara Studleigh who was at the moment
dancing prettily with him. She was guilty of something which might
have been called a slight giggle, but it was good-natured. "I
know, you saw Miss Lawless--the pretty one near the door."

"There are so many pretty ones near everything. You can't lift your
eyes without seeing one," Donal answered. "What a lot of them!"
(The sense of having received a slight electric shock made you
feel that you must look again and find out what had caused it, he
was thinking.)

"She is the one with the eyelashes."

"I have eyelashes--so have you," looking down at hers with a very
taking expression. Hers were in fact nice ones.

"But ours are not two inches long and they don't make a big soft
circle round our eyes when we look at anyone."

"Please look up and let me see," said Donal. "When I asked you to
dance with me I thought--"

What a "way" he had, Sara Studleigh was thinking. But "perhaps it
WAS the eyelashes" was passing through Donal's mind. Very noticeable
eyelashes were rather arresting.

"I knew you saw her," said Sara Studleigh, "because I have happened
to be near two or three people this evening when they caught their
first sight of her."

"What happens to them?" asked Donal Muir.

"They forget where they are," she laughed, "and don't say anything
for a few seconds."

"I should not want to forget where I am. It wouldn't be possible
either," answered Donal. ("But that was it," he thought. "For a
minute I forgot.")

One should not dance with one girl and talk to