Page 118 - swanns-way

charming person, her dress of pink silk, her pearls, and the
refinement suggested by intimacy with a Grand Duke, so, in
the same way, she had taken some casual remark by my fa-
ther, had worked it up delicately, given it a ‘turn,’ a precious
title, set in it the gem of a glance from her own eyes, a gem
of the first water, blended of humility and gratitude; and so
had given it back transformed into a jewel, a work of art,
into something altogether charming.
‘Look here, my boy, it is time you went away,’ said my
uncle.
I rose; I could scarcely resist a desire to kiss the hand
of the lady in pink, but I felt that to do so would require as
much audacity as a forcible abduction of her. My heart beat
loud while I counted out to myself ‘Shall I do it, shall I not?’
and then I ceased to ask myself what I ought to do so as at
least to do something. Blindly, hotly, madly, flinging aside
all the reasons I had just found to support such action, I
seized and raised to my lips the hand she held out to me.
‘Isn’t he delicious! Quite a ladies’ man already; he takes
after his uncle. He’ll be a perfect ‘gentleman,’’ she went on,
setting her teeth so as to give the word a kind of English ac-
centuation. ‘Couldn’t he come to me some day for ‘a cup of
tea,’ as our friends across the channel say; he need only send
me a ‘blue’ in the morning?’
I had not the least idea of what a ‘blue’ might be. I did
not understand half the words which the lady used, but my
fear lest there should be concealed in them some question
which it would be impolite in me not to answer kept me
from withdrawing my close attention from them, and I was

118 Swann’s Way