He saw, in a word, that it was
what it had first struck him as being--an incongruous union. All this
was a good deal for Bernard to see in the course of half a minute,
especially through the rather opaque medium of a feeling of irreflective
joy; and his impressions at this moment have a value only in so far as
they were destined to be confirmed by larger opportunity.
"You have come a little sooner than we expected," said Gordon; "but you
are all the more welcome."
"It was rather a risk," Blanche observed. "One should be notified, when
one wishes to make a good impression."
"Ah, my dear lady," said Bernard, "you made your impression--as far as I
am concerned--a long time ago, and I doubt whether it would have gained
anything to-day by your having prepared an effect."
They were standing before the fire-place, on the great hearth-rug, and
Blanche, while she listened to this speech, was feeling, with uplifted
arm, for a curl that had strayed from her chignon.
"She prepares her effects very quickly," said Gordon, laughing gently.
"They follow each other very fast!"
Blanche kept her hand behind her head, which was bent slightly forward;
her bare arm emerged from her hanging sleeve, and, with her eyes
glancing upward from under her lowered brows, she smiled at her two
spectators.
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