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with the top of her eyelids, the lobes of her ears, the palms of her
hands, the tips of her fingers, were tinted with a glowing and
provoking touch of colour. Above all, she wore an expression of
implacable determination to be beautiful. This reached the point of
ferocity. She was like a panther, with the power of turning cat at will,
and caressing. One of her eyes was blue, the other black.
Gwynplaine, as well as Ursus, contemplated her.
The Green Box somewhat resembled a phantasmagoria in its
representations. "Chaos Vanquished" was rather a dream than a piece; it
generally produced on the audience the effect of a vision. Now, this
effect was reflected on the actors. The house took the performers by
surprise, and they were thunderstruck in their turn. It was a rebound of
fascination.
The woman watched them, and they watched her.
At the distance at which they were placed, and in that luminous mist
which is the half-light of a theatre, details were lost and it was like
a hallucination. Of course it was a woman, but was it not a chimera as
well? The penetration of her light into their obscurity stupefied them.
It was like the appearance of an unknown planet. It came from a world of
the happy. Her irradiation amplified her figure. The lady was covered
with nocturnal glitterings, like a milky way. Her precious stones were
stars. The diamond brooch was perhaps a pleiad. The splendid beauty of
her bosom seemed supernatural. They felt, as they looked upon the
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