Mabel's fantastic appearance--now and then, thought Mabel Waring, left
alone on the blue sofa, punching the cushion in order to look occupied,
for she would not join Charles Burt and Rose Shaw, chattering like
magpies and perhaps laughing at her by the fireplace--now and then, there
did come to her delicious moments, reading the other night in bed, for
instance, or down by the sea on the sand in the sun, at Easter--let her
recall it--a great tuft of pale sand-grass standing all twisted like a
shock of spears against the sky, which was blue like a smooth china egg,
so firm, so hard, and then the melody of the waves--"Hush, hush," they
said, and the children's shouts paddling--yes, it was a divine moment,
and there she lay, she felt, in the hand of the Goddess who was the
world; rather a hard-hearted, but very beautiful Goddess, a little lamb
laid on the altar (one did think these silly things,
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matter so long as one never said them).