The next and last arrivals were Mr. and Mrs. Chiverton. Mr. Chiverton
was known to all present, but the bride was a stranger except to one or
two. She was attired in rich white silk--in full dress--so terribly
trying to the majority of women, and Bessie Fairfax's first thought on
seeing her again was how much less beautiful she was than in her simple
_percale_ dresses at school. She did not notice Bessie at once, but when
their eyes met and Bessie smiled, she ran to embrace her with expansive
cordiality. Bessie, her beaming comeliness notwithstanding, could assume
in an instant a touch-me-not air, and gave her hand only, though that
with a kind frankness; and then they sat down and talked of Caen.
Mrs. Chiverton's report as a woman of extraordinary beauty and virtue
had preceded her into her husband's country, but to the general observer
Miss Fairfax was much more pleasing. She also wore full dress--white
relieved with blue--but she was also able to wear it with a grace; for
her arms were lovely, and all her contours fair, rounded, and dimpled,
while Mrs. Chiverton's tall frame, though very stately, was very bony,
and her little head and pale, classical face, her brown hair not
abundant, and eyes too cold and close together, with that expression of
intense pride which is a character in itself, required a taste
cultivated amidst statuary to appreciate. This taste Mr. Chiverton
possessed, and his wife satisfied it perfectly.
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