He
seemed much more _empresse_ with her than he generally does. It--it hurt
me, that and the music and the dancing, and Mr. Carruthers whispering
passionate little words at intervals, even though I paid no attention to
them; but altogether I, too, felt a kind of madness.
Suddenly Lord Robert turned round, and for five seconds looked at me, his
lovely, expressive blue eyes swimming with wrath and reproach and--oh, how
it hurt me!--contempt. Christopher was leaning over the back of my chair,
quite close, in a devoted attitude.
Lord Robert did not speak, but if a look could wither I must have turned
into a dead oak-leaf. It awoke some devil in me. What had _I_ done to be
annihilated so! _I_ was playing perfectly fair--keeping my word to Lady
Ver, and--oh, I felt as if it were breaking my heart.
But that look of Lord Robert's! It drove me to distraction, and every
instinct to be wicked and attractive that I possess came up in me. I
leaned over to Lady Ver, so that I must be close to him, and I said little
things to her, never one word to him; but I moved my seat, making it
certain the corner of his eye must catch sight of me, and I allowed my
shoulders to undulate the faintest bit to that Spanish music. Oh, I can
dance as Carmen, too! Mrs. Carruthers had me taught every time we went to
Paris.
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