THE AWAKENING
being in their due and proper relations the precipitate was crystallized. Giles looked, the hour struck, the key turned, the bolt was shot. He had left the court as a friend; an instant, a look, and the friend had stepped aside to make way for the lover. It is sometimes so that these things occur, and if they follow any law it is one which never can be formulated. Virginia saw the look, paused in her query with parted lips and hazel eyes filled with startled inquiry, and then for her, too, the veil was raised; in that same instant she had read the Cause. The color swept into her oval face, suffused the straight, round neck; she smiled, the clear eyes softened, darkened, grew humid. She turned swiftly to Sir Henry, and with some swift impulse kissed him lightly on the cheek.
"Now I must go and dress," she said breathlessly, and fled away across the lawn; but looked back over her shoulder, smiling as she ran.
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