other time at Miss
Birdseye's well enough to be able to measure the ground she had
travelled since then. This exhibition was much more complete, her manner
much more assured; she seemed to speak and survey the whole place from a
much greater height. Her voice, too, had developed; he had forgotten how
beautiful it could be when she raised it to its full capacity. Such a
tone as that, so pure and rich, and yet so young, so natural,
constituted in itself a talent; he didn't wonder that they had made a
fuss about her at the Female Convention, if she filled their hideous
hall with such a music. He had read, of old, of the _improvisatrice_ of
Italy, and this was a chastened, modern, American version of the type, a
New England Corinna, with a mission instead of a lyre. The most graceful
part of her was her earnestness, the way her delightful eyes, wandering
over the "fashionable audience" (before which she was so perfectly
unabashed), as if she wished to resolve it into a single sentient
personality, seemed to say that the only thing in life she cared for was
to put the truth into a form that would render conviction irresistible.
She was as simple as she was charming, and there was not a glance or
motion that did not seem part of the pure, still-burning passion that
animated her. She had indeed--it was manifest--reduced the company to
unanimity; their attention was anything but languid; they smiled back at
her when she smiled; they were noiseless, motionless when she was
solemn; and it was evident that the entertainment which Mrs. Burrage had
had the happy thought of offering to her friends would be memorable in
the annals of the Wednesday Club. It was agreeable to Basil Ransom to
think that Verena noticed him in his corner; her eyes played over her
listeners so freely that you couldn't say they rested in one place more
than another; nevertheless, a single rapid ray, which, however, didn't
in the least strike him as a deviation from her ridiculous, fantastic,
delightful argument, let him now that he had been missed and now was
particularly spoken to. This glance was a sufficient assurance that his
invitation had come to him by the girl's request. He took for granted
the matter of her speech was ridiculous; how could it help being, and
what did it signify if it was? She was none the less charming for that,
and the moonshine she had been plied with was none the less moonshine
for her being charming. After he had stood there a quar