even more
striking in repose, for there was a faint, insidious suggestion of
voluptuous movement in those motionless, crouching limbs, and the
_abandon_ of the shapely, dusky head, with its crown of dark, wavy
hair thrown back amongst the cushions. It was beauty of a strange
sort, the beauty almost of some wild animal; but Paul felt a most
unwilling admiration steal through his senses as he gazed down upon
her. Her tea-gown, a wonderful shade of shimmering green, tumbled and
disarranged out of all similitude to its original shape, followed the
soft perfections of her outline with such peculiar faithfulness that
it seemed to suggest even more than it concealed, leaving the gentle
tracery of her figure outlined there like a piece of living Greek
statuary. She turned slightly upon the couch, and a slipperless little
foot stole out from a sea of lace and white draperies which her uneasy
movement had left exposed, and swayed slowly backwards and forwards,
trying to reach the ground. Her eyes were still closed, but she was
not sleeping, for in a moment or two she spoke in a low, drowsy tone.

"Celeste, I told you not to disturb me for an hour. It isn't five
o'clock yet, is it?"

He roused himself, and moved a step further into the room. "It is
still a quarter to five, I think," he said. "I have come before my
time."

She opened her eyes, and then, seeing him, sprang into a sitting
posture. Her hair, which had escaped all bounds, was down to her
shoulders, and her gown, still further disarranged by her hasty
movement, floated around her in wonderful curves and angles. Had she
been a past mistress in the art of picturesque effects she could have
conceived nothing more striking. Paul felt all the old fear upon him
as he watched the firelight gleaming upon her startled, dusky face,
and the faint pink colouring, wonderfully suggestive of a blush, steal
into her cheeks. It seemed to him that she was as beautiful as a woman
could be, and yet so different from Lady May.

She rose, and, with a shrug of the shoulders and a quick, graceful
movement, shook out her skirts, and pushed the hair back from her
face. Then she held out her hand, and Paul found himself compelled,
against his will, to stand by her side.

"How strange that I should have overslept like this, and have taken
you for Celeste!" she said. "Yet perhaps it was natural; for, Monsieur
Paul, save Celeste, no one yet has permission to enter my chamber
unannounced. How