I don't know. But in that moment, with all his beauty and
truly royal-manness crossing to me and penetrating to the heart of
me, I felt a sudden sense of beauty in myself--how shall I say? as
if in him and from him perfection were engendered and conjured
within myself.
"No word was spoken. But, oh, I know I raised my face in frank
answer to the thunder and trumpets of the message unspoken, and
that, had it been death for that one look and that one moment I
could not have refrained from the gift of myself that must have
been in my face and eyes, in the very body of me that breathed so
high.
"Was I beautiful, very beautiful, Martha, when I was nineteen, just
turning into twenty?"
And Martha, three-score and four, looked upon Bella, three-score
and eight, and nodded genuine affirmation, and to herself added the
appreciation of the instant in what she beheld--Bella's neck, still
full and shapely, longer than the ordinary Hawaiian woman's neck, a
pillar that carried regally her high-cheeked, high-browed, high
chiefess face and head; Bella's hair, high-piled, intact, sparkling
the silver of the years, ringleted still and contrasting definitely
and sharply with her clean, slim, black brows and deep brown eyes.
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