John Barrington Cowles - Page 2

she produced on my mind at the time.

After we came to know her my judgment was warped, so that I am
curious to recollect what my unbiassed{sic} instincts were. It is
hard, however, to eliminate the feelings which reason or prejudice
afterwards raised in me.

It was at the opening of the Royal Scottish Academy in the spring
of 1879. My poor friend was passionately attached to art in every
form, and a pleasing chord in music or a delicate effect upon
canvas would give exquisite pleasure to his highly-strung nature.
We had gone together to see the pictures, and were standing in the
grand central salon, when I noticed an extremely beautiful woman
standing at the other side of the room. In my whole life I have
never seen such a classically perfect countenance. It was the real
Greek type--the forehead broad, very low, and as white as marble,
with a cloudlet of delicate locks wreathing round it, the nose
straight and clean cut, the lips inclined to thinness, the chin and
lower jaw beautifully rounded off, and yet sufficiently developed
to promise unusual strength of character.

But those eyes--those wonderful eyes! If I could but give some
faint idea of their varying moods, their steely hardness, their
feminine softness, their power of command, their penetrating
intensity suddenly melting away into an expression of womanly
weakness--but I am speaking now of future impressions!

There was a tall, yellow-haired young man with this lady, whom I at
once recognised as a law student with whom I had a slight
acquaintance.

Archibald Reeves--for that was his name--was a dashing, handsome
young fellow, and had at one time been a ringleader in every
university escapade; but of late I had seen little of him, and the
report was that he was engaged to be married. His companion was,
then, I presumed, his fiancee. I seated myself upon the velvet
settee in the centre of the room, and furtively watched the couple
from behind my catalogue.

The more I looked at her the more her beauty grew upon me. She was
somewhat short in stature, it is true; but her figure was
perfection, and she bore herself in such a fashion that it was only
by actual comparison that one would have known her to be under the
medium height.

As I kept my eyes upon them, Reeves was called away for some
reason, and the young lady was left alone. Turning her back to the
pictures, she passed the time until the return of her escort in
taking a deliberate survey of the company, without paying the least
heed to the fact that a dozen pair of eyes, attracted by her
elegance and beauty, were bent curiously upon her. With one of her
hands holding the red silk cord which railed off the pictures, she
stood languidly