Besides all this, she was doubtless a very pretty woman--less striking perhaps than winning. At the first glance you hardly remarked her--at the second you observed she was very well dressed--at the third it occurred to you all of a sudden that she was far better-looking than half the regular red-and-white beauties of the season; and after five minutes' conversation all the men were over head and ears in love with her. She was neither dark nor fair, neither pale nor ruddy, neither short nor tall. I never could succeed in making out the colour of her eyes, but she had wonderfully long thick eyelashes with a curl in them (I wish mine had been cut when I was a baby), and a beautiful healthy-looking skin, and such good teeth. After all, I think her great attraction was her nose. It had more expression in its straight, well-cut bridge and little, sharp point than all the rest of her features put together. I believe it was her nose that conquered everything, and that her small feet and pretty figure and white hands, and dashing ways and _piquante_ conversation had much less to answer for than one saucy little feature. How she rattled on: "You don't know Lady Scapegrace, Miss Coventry, do you? There, that bold-looking woman in yellow. Beautiful black hair, hasn't she?--false, every bit of it! She'll bow to me to-night, because she sees me with your good aunt; there, I told you so! Since she and Sir Guy are living together again she sets up for being respectable--such stories, my dear! but I don't believe half of 'em. However, I've seen her with my own eyes do _the oddest_ things--at best, I'm afraid she's a shocking flirt! There's your cousin, Mr. Jones--you see I know everybody. How black he looks--he don't like me--a great many people don't--but I return good for evil--I like everybody--it's never worth while to be cross;" and as she said so she smiled with such a sunny, merry expression that I liked her better and better.
Cousin John certainly did look very cross. "Who introduced you to that horrid woman, Kate?" said he as soon as a fresh convulsion in the crowd had stranded us a few steps higher up, and we were separated from Mrs. Lumley and her attractions.
"My aunt, sir," I replied demurely, telling a "_white_ one" for the sake of teasing him. "Why? Have you any objections?"