"I am surprised to see you here, and so soon," he answered, coldly; "but
I knew we should meet before long."
"The surprise does not seem too charming," Miss Bellasys said, pouting
her scarlet lip as she threw herself into a deep _bergere_ opposite to
the couch on which Livingstone had already sunk down again--he was very
weak and unsteady in his movements still.
Was it by chance or calculation that a fold of her dress disarranged
displayed the slender foot, with its arched instep--set off by the
delicate _brodequin_, a labor of love to the Parisian Crispin--and the
straight, beautifully-turned ankle, cased in dead-white silk? The
latter, I think; for Flora knew how to fall as well as Caesar or
Polyxena, and had studied her part to its minutest shade. It was by the
senses that she had always been most successful in attacking Guy, and
she knew that, in old days, no point of feminine perfection had a
greater attraction for him.
The temptation, if so it was intended, had about as much effect upon him
now as it might have had on weather-beaten St. Simeon Stylites when his
penances had lasted twenty years.
After a minute's silence, during which Flora was gazing intently on her
companion, leaning her chin upon her hand, she spoke again.
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