n
of civility, the Magic Skin had contracted so abruptly. So Raphael was
determined not to turn his face in the direction of his neighbor. He sat
imperturbable as a duchess with his back against the corner of the box,
thereby shutting out half of his neighbor's view of the stage, appearing
to disregard her, and even to be unaware that a pretty woman sat there
just behind him.

His neighbor copied Valentin's position exactly; she leaned her elbow
on the edge of her box and turned her face in three-quarter profile upon
the singers on the stage, as if she were sitting to a painter. These
two people looked like two estranged lovers still sulking, still turning
their backs upon each other, who will go into each other's arms at the
first tender word.

Now and again his neighbor's ostrich feathers or her hair came in
contact with Raphael's head, giving him a pleasurable thrill, against
which he sternly fought. In a little while he felt the touch of the
soft frill of lace that went round her dress; he could hear the gracious
sounds of the folds of her dress itself, light rustling noises full of
enchantment; he could even feel her movements as she breathed; with the
gentle stir thus imparted to her form and to her draperies, it seemed
to Raphael that all her being was suddenly communicated to him in
an electric spark. The lace and tulle that caressed him imparted
the delicious warmth of her bare, white shoulders. By a freak in
the ordering of things, these two creatures, kept apart by social
conventions, with the abysses of death between them, breathed together
and perhaps thought of one another. Finally, the subtle perfume of aloes
completed the work of Raphael's intoxication. Opposition heated his
imagination, and his fancy, become the wilder for the limits imposed
upon it, sketched a woman for him in outlines of fire. He turned
abruptly, the stranger made a similar movement, startled no doubt at
being brought in contact with a stranger; and they remained face to
face, each with the same thought.

"Pauline!"

"M. Raphael!"

Each surveyed the other, both of them petrified with astonishment.
Raphael noticed Pauline's daintily simple costume. A woman's experienced
eyes would have discerned and admired the outlines beneath the modest
gauze folds of her bodice and the lily whiteness of her throat. And
then her more than mortal clearness of soul, her maidenly modesty, her
graceful bearing, all were unchanged. Her sleeve was q