Those eyes were notable even in so lovely a setting, for they
were of a hue rarely seen in human eyes, being like the eyes of a
tigress; yet they could seem voluptuously soft, twin pools of
liquid amber, in whose depths a man might lose his soul.
Again the silver bell sounded in the ante-room, and, below, the
little yellow man shivered sympathetically. Again Madame stirred
with that high disdain that so became her, who had the eyes of a
tigress. Her carmine lips possessed the antique curve which we
are told distinguished the lips of the Comtesse de Cagliostro;
her cheeks had the freshness of flowers, and her hair the
blackness of ebony, enhancing the miracle of her skin, which had
the whiteness of ivory--not of African ivory, but of that fossil
ivory which has lain for untold ages beneath the snows of
Siberia.
She dropped the cigarette from her tapered fingers into a little
silver bowl upon a table at her side, then lightly touched the
bell which stood there also. Its soft note answered to the bell
in the ante-room; a white-robed Chinese servant silently
descended the great staircase, his soft red slippers sinking into
the rich pile of the carpet; and the little yellow man from the
great temple in Pekin followed him back up the stairway and was
ushered into the presence of Madame de Medici.
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