ction of the slender
neck, with the smooth unbroken curve from the ear to the arm. Her long
hair, fastened only by a silver band woven in and out behind the small
rounded ears, fell almost to her knee; and, as it caught the bright
rays of the morning sun, I discerned for the first time the full
beauty of that tinge of gold which varied the colour of the rich,
soft, brown tresses. As her sex are seldom exposed to the cold of the
night or the mists, their underclothing is slight and close fitting.
Eveena's thin robe, of the simplest possible form--two wide straight
pieces of a material lustrous as satin but rivalling the finest
cambric in texture (lined with the same fabric reversed), sewn
together from the hem of the skirt to the arm, and fastened again by
the shoulder clasps--fell perfectly loose save where compressed by the
zone or by the movements of the wearer; and where so compressed,
defined the outlines of the form as distinctly as the lightest wet
drapery of the studio. Her dress, in short, achieved in its pure
simplicity all at which the artistic skill of matrons, milliners, and
maidens aims in a Parisian ball costume, without a shadow of that
suggestive immodesty from which ball costumes are seldom wholly free.
Exactly reversing Terrestrial practice, a Martial wife reserves for
strictest domestic privacy that undressed full-dress, that frank
revelation of her beauty, which the matrons of London, Paris, or New
York think exclusively appropriate to the most public occasions. Till
now, while still enjoying the liberty allowed to maidens in this
respect, Eveena, by the arrangement of her veil, had always given to
her costume a reserve wholly unexceptionable, even according to the
rules enforced by the customs of Western Europe on young girls not yet
presented in the marriage market of society. A new expression, or one,
at least, which I had never before seen there, gave to her face a
strange and novel beauty; the beauty, I wish to think, of shy, but
true happiness; felt, it may be, for the first time, and softened, I
fear, by a doubt of its possible endurance which rendered it as
touching as attractive. Never was the sleep even of the poet of the
_Midsummer Night's Dream_ visited by a lovelier vision--especially
lovely as the soft rose blush suffused her cheeks under my gaze of
admiration and delight. Springing up, I caught her with both hands and
drew her on my knee. Some minutes passed before either of us cared to