"Looking for me?"
"Yes. Coral especially . . . she wants to see you. She wants you to come to her own sitting-room."
She led him across the ante-chamber and down the passage to the separate suite which Miss Hicks inhabited. On the threshold Eldorada gasped out emotionally: "You'll find her looking lovely—" and jerked away with a sob as he entered.
Coral Hicks was never lovely: but she certainly looked unusually handsome. Perhaps it was the long dress of black velvet which, outlined against a shaded lamp, made her strong build seem slenderer, or perhaps the slight flush on her dusky cheek: a bloom of womanhood hung upon her which she made no effort to dissemble. Indeed, it was one of her originalities that she always gravely and courageously revealed the utmost of whatever mood possessed her.
"How splendid you look!" he said, smiling at her.
She threw her head back and gazed him straight in the eyes. "That's going to be my future job."
"To look splendid?"
"Yes."
"And wear a crown?"
"And wear a crown. . . ."
They continued to consider each other without speaking. Nick's heart contracted with pity and perplexity.
