It befell at this period, just before Christmas, that on my having gone
under pressure of the season into a great shop to buy a toy or two,
my eye, fleeing from superfluity, lighted at a distance on the bright
concretion of Flora Saunt, an exhibitability that held its own even
against the most plausible pinkness of the most developed dolls. A huge
quarter of the place, the biggest bazaar “on earth,” was peopled with
these and other effigies and fantasies, as well as with purchasers and
vendors, haggard alike in the blaze of the gas with hesitations. I was
just about to appeal to Flora to avert that stage of my errand when I
saw that she was accompanied by a gentleman whose identity,'though more
than a year had elapsed, came back to me from the Folkestone cliff.’ It
had been associated in that scene with showy knickerbockers; at
present it overflowed more splendidly into a fur-trimmed overcoat. Lord
Iffield’s presence made me waver an instant before crossing over; and
during that instant Flora, blank and undistinguishing, as if she too
were after all weary of alternatives, looked straight across at me. I
was on the point of raising my hat to her when I observed that her face
gave no sign. I was exactly in the line of her vision, but she either
didn’t see me or didn’t recognise me, or else had a reason to pretend
she didn’t. Was her reason that I had displeased her and that she wished
to punish me? I had always thought it one of her merits that she wasn’t
vindictive. She at any rate simply looked away; and at this moment one
of the shop-girls, who had apparently gone off in search of it, bustled
up to her with a small mechanical toy. It so happened that I followed
closely what then took place, afterwards recognising that I had been led
to do so, led even through the crowd to press nearer for the purpose, by
an impression of which in the act I was not fully conscious.
Flora, with the toy in her hand, looked round at her companion; then
seeing his attention had been solicited in another quarter she moved
away with the shop-girl, who had evidently offered to conduct her into
the presence of more objects of the same sort. When she reached the
indicated spot I was in a position still to observe her. She had asked
some question about the working of the toy, and the girl, taking it
herself, began to explain the little secret. Flora bent her head over
it, but she clearly didn’t understand. I saw her, in a manner that
quickened my curiosity, give a glance back at the place from which
she had come. Lord Iffield was talking with another young person: she
satisfied herself of this by the aid of a question addressed to her own
attendant. She then drew closer to the table near which she stood and,
turning her back to me, bent her head lower over the collection of toys
and more particularly over the small object the girl had attempted
to explain. She took it back and, after a moment, with her face well
averted, made an odd motion of her arms and a significant little duck of
her head. These slight signs, singular as it may appear, produced in
my bosom an agitation so great that I failed to notice Lord Iffield’s
whereabouts. He had rejoined her; he was close upon her before I knew it
or before she knew it herself. I felt at that instant the strangest
of all impulses: if it could have operated more rapidly it would have
caused me to dash between them in some such manner as to give Flora a
warning. In fact as it was I think I could have done this in time had
I not been checked by a curiosity stronger still than my impulse. There
were three seconds during which I saw the young man and yet let him come
on. Didn’t I make the quick calculation that if he didn’t catch what
Flora was doing I too might perhaps not catch it? She at any rate
herself took the alarm. On perceiving her companion’s nearness she made,
still averted, another duck of her head and a shuffle of her hands so
precipitate that a little tin steamboat she had been holding escaped
from them and rattled down to the floor with a sharpness that I hear at
this hour. Lord Iffield had already seized her arm; with a violent jerk
he brought her round toward him. Then it was that there met my eyes a
quite distressing sight: this exquisite creature, blushing, glaring,
exposed, with a pair of big black-rimmed eyeglasses, defacing her by
their position, crookedly astride of her beautiful nose. She made a grab
at them with her free hand while I turned confusedly away.