Notice that other one over
there; yes, the one in nile-green, with the garnet velvet sleeves. She's
looking for me, and can't find me. There! she sees Granger--everybody
knows _him_. And now she's quieter; she's satisfied; she has taken old
Mrs. McIntosh for me, just because Granger happens to be in their box for
a moment. See, the man alongside of her is smiling and looking the same
way. I know what she's saying to him: 'Is _that_ Mrs. Bates--that plain
old woman in that dowdy gown? Well, I never!--after all I've heard and
read.' And she's so happy over it. Tell me, child; _am_ I plain, _am_ I
dowdy?"
"You are magnificent," said Jane, squeezing her hand. "Carolus-Duran is
only a dauber--and a half-blind one at that!" Jane, after the first
half-hour, had become quite habituated to her new and unaccustomed
environment. Her attitude was neither too self-conscious nor too relaxed;
and she never lost sight of the fact that she was thirty-three. Her dress
was a fabric in a soft shade of blue-gray run through by fine black
lines. Her ample sleeves took full advantage of the prevailing mode,
and several falls of wide lace passed between them, both before and
behind. Her hair was done up high, in a fashion devised by her fairy
godmother--a piece of discreet but fetching phantasy. Jane leaned back
graciously in her chair, after the manner of her favorite heroines,
losing in height and gaining in breadth; never before had she felt so
amplitudinous, so imperial.
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