For she was unknown
even by several people whom she knew and that, too, pleased her--
to have bloomed so quite beyond their ken. She was like a meteor
coming back to dazzle the very world from which it had flown for a
while into space. When she went into the dining-room for the
midday dinner, there was a movement in almost every part of the
room as though there were many there who were on the lookout for
her entrance. The head waiter, a portly darky, lost his
imperturbable majesty for a moment in surprise at the vision and
then with a lordly yet obsequious wave of his hand, led her to a
table over in a corner where no one was sitting. Four young men
came in rather boisterously and made for her table. She lifted her
calm eyes at them so haughtily that the one in front halted with
sudden embarrassment and they all swerved to another table from
which they stared at her surreptitiously. Perhaps she was mistaken
for the comic-opera star whose brilliant picture she had seen on a
bill board in front of the "opera house." Well, she had the voice
and she might have been and she might yet be--and if she were,
this would be the distinction that would be shown her.
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