The Project Gutenberg EBook of Shadows of Flames, by Amelie Rives

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Title: Shadows of Flames
A Novel

Author: Amelie Rives

Illustrator: Alfred J. Dewey

Release Date: July 23, 2010 [EBook #33234]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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_Shadows of Flames_

Amelie Rives, Alfred James
Dewey, Frederick A. Stokes Company

SHADOWS OF FLAMES

[Illustration: "'And it came to me that we were all like that--like
little flames casting shadows in some greater light. And that our
passions were also like little flames that cast shadows--of sorrow ...
regret ... despair ... weariness....'"--_Page 27_]

SHADOWS OF
FLAMES

A Novel

BY
AMELIE RIVES
(PRINCESS TROUBETZKOY)

_Author of "The Quick or the Dead," "World's-End," etc._

_WITH FRONTISPIECE IN COLOR BY_
_ALFRED JAMES DEWEY_

NEW YORK
FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY
PUBLISHERS

_Copyright, 1914, 1915, by_
AMELIE TROUBETZKOY

TO
MY FRIEND
VIOLA ROSEBORO
WITH MUCH LOVE

I

Sophy smiled at her image in the mirror, and her grey eyes smiled back
at her. The shadows under them--warm, golden stains like those on a
bruised magnolia leaf--gave them a mysterious, impassioned look. She
felt that she was going to have a happy evening.

In those days, in the early '90s, electric light was not much used in
the houses in Regent's Park. Candles in brass sconces lighted her
dressing-table. They brought out flickering shimmers from her gown of
white brocade. Sleeves were full that year. The transparent masses of
azalea pink, drooping on either side of her slender body, made it look
slenderer. These sleeves were like huge orchids, and from them her arms
drooped stamenlike in the soft, gold wash from the candles.

Matilda, her little Kentish maid, could not keep her eyes away from her.
As she hooked the long, tightly wound sash of azalea pink she kept
peering at her lady's image in the glass. There, Sophy's eyes met hers.
She smiled again