Straight as an arrow, her
shoulders the perfect curve, bosom and hips full-moulded to the
ideal of ripe girlhood, she could not make a gesture which was not
graceful, nor change her position without revealing a new excellence
of form. Yet a certain taste would have leant towards Miss
Hannaford, whose traits had more mystery; as an uncommon type, she
gained by this juxtaposition. Miss Derwent, despite her larger
experience of the world, her vastly better education, was a much
younger person than Olga; she had an occasional _naivete_ unknown to
her cousin; her sex was far less developed. To the average man,
Olga's proximity would have been troubling, whereas Irene's would
simply have given delight.
During the excitement of the arrival, and through the cheerful meal
which followed, Eustace Derwent maintained a certain reserve, was
always rather in the background. This implied no defect of decent
sentiment; the young man--he was four-and-twenty--could not
regard his aunt and cousin with any fond emotion, but he did not
dislike them, and was willing to credit them with all the excellent
qualities perceived by Irene, wondering merely how his father's
sister, a member of the Derwent family, could have married such a
"doubtful customer" as Lee Hannaford. Eustace never became
demonstrative; he had in perfection the repose of a self-conscious,
delicately bred, and highly trained Englishman.
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