DOI article:
Cross, Victoria: Theodora: a fragment
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21805#0166
Theodora
162
“ And would that be a pleasure ? ”
“Yes, very great,” said Theodora, with a smile lighting her
eyes and parting faintly the soft scarlet lips.
She looked at me, a seducing softness melting all her face and
swimming in the liquid darkness of the eyes she raised to mine.
A delicious intimacy seemed established between us by that smile.
We seemed nearer to each other after it than before, by many
degrees. A month or two of time and ordinary intercourse may
be balanced against the seconds of such a smile as this.
A faint feeling of surprise mingled with my thoughts, that she
should show her own attitude of mind so clearly, but I believe
she feit instinctively my attraction towards her, and also undoubt-
edly she belonged, and had always been accustomed, to a fast set.
I was not the sort of man to find fault with her for that, and
probably she had already been conscious of this, and feit all the
more at ease with me. The opening-primrose type of woman,
the girl who does or wishes to suggest the modest violet unfolding
beneath the rural hedge, had never had a charm for me. I do not
profess to admire the simple violet ; I infinitely prefer a well-
trained hothouse gardenia. And this girl, about whom there was
nothing of the humble, crooked-neck violet—in whom there was
a dash of virility, a hint at dissipation, a Suggestion of a certain
decorous looseness of morals and fastness of manners—could
stimulate me with a keen sense of pleasure, as our eyes or hands
met.
“ Why would it be a pleasure to meet me ? ” I asked, holding
her eyes with mine, and wondering whether things would so turn
out that I should ever kiss those parting lips before me.
Theodora laughed gently.
“Foragood many reasons that it would make you too con-
ceited to hear,” she answered. “ But one is because you are more
interesting
162
“ And would that be a pleasure ? ”
“Yes, very great,” said Theodora, with a smile lighting her
eyes and parting faintly the soft scarlet lips.
She looked at me, a seducing softness melting all her face and
swimming in the liquid darkness of the eyes she raised to mine.
A delicious intimacy seemed established between us by that smile.
We seemed nearer to each other after it than before, by many
degrees. A month or two of time and ordinary intercourse may
be balanced against the seconds of such a smile as this.
A faint feeling of surprise mingled with my thoughts, that she
should show her own attitude of mind so clearly, but I believe
she feit instinctively my attraction towards her, and also undoubt-
edly she belonged, and had always been accustomed, to a fast set.
I was not the sort of man to find fault with her for that, and
probably she had already been conscious of this, and feit all the
more at ease with me. The opening-primrose type of woman,
the girl who does or wishes to suggest the modest violet unfolding
beneath the rural hedge, had never had a charm for me. I do not
profess to admire the simple violet ; I infinitely prefer a well-
trained hothouse gardenia. And this girl, about whom there was
nothing of the humble, crooked-neck violet—in whom there was
a dash of virility, a hint at dissipation, a Suggestion of a certain
decorous looseness of morals and fastness of manners—could
stimulate me with a keen sense of pleasure, as our eyes or hands
met.
“ Why would it be a pleasure to meet me ? ” I asked, holding
her eyes with mine, and wondering whether things would so turn
out that I should ever kiss those parting lips before me.
Theodora laughed gently.
“Foragood many reasons that it would make you too con-
ceited to hear,” she answered. “ But one is because you are more
interesting