This brutal effect of color
exercised a peculiar fascination and riveted the attention. The eye
lingered upon those lips--so voluptuously, so sinfully full, so
burning, blood-red that in the chastest mind, even a woman's, they
must suggest the image of vampire-like kisses. Take her for all in
all, she was a magnificent creature, this woman of thirty,
overflowing with health and life, in all her triumphant display of
full-blown womanly beauty. Not a man in the hotel but had looked at
her in undisguised admiration, and if they had not yet ventured to
make advances to her, it was because she intimidated them by her
cold hauteur, or by the mocking twinkle of her eye.
Only for Wilhelm, now that she had really taken notice of him, did
those eyes begin to grow soft and gentle, and when they met his
turned meek and harmless, and, in their apparent innocence, seemed
to plead to him for notice, confidence, instruction. He did not
remain impervious to their influence. It afforded him distinct
pleasure to sit at table beside this beautiful woman and show her
small attentions. On his long walks he caught himself thinking
deeply about her, while the blood coursed with unwonted heat through
his veins. He marked her entrance into the dining room or salon by
his heart stopping suddenly and then racing on in wild, irregular
beats, and if he looked at her the indecorous thought came to him
that it would be a joy to stroke those firm, round cheeks, to pass
one's fingers gently over those swelling lips, but more especially
to bury one's hands in that flood of silken hair.
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