in her abundant hair, which no doubt she would have very much enjoyed.
"She offered us her hand after the manner of 'the Slope,' and as Stewart took it in his I saw the blood surge up beneath his yellow, tropic tan; his pale eyes shone like those of a gull, and one could see the deep chest swell suddenly as he caught his breath. Consider the nature of the man, Doctor—more animal than a well-bred dog, who, after all, has many elevated traits, whereas Stewart's were mostly low—and the fact that he had not seen a fair woman for months.
"The deep blue eyes of the Countess were fixed upon Stewart with a sort of startled wonder; no doubt the contrasts of the man's crushing masculinity with the colorless shell of her husband's sex may have struck her as a positive shock. There was almost a physical weight in the impulse which he projected toward her. One saw that she took it with a little shudder—as an hereditary drunkard might gulp his first glass of spirits.
[ 168 ]