Also, her gown--as the two women guessed in
an instant--was from Paris. She was perfectly gloved and
booted, and even if she betrayed somehow a barbaric taste for
color in the dull ruddy hue of her dress, which was subdued with
black braid, yet she looked quite a well-bred woman. All the
same, her whole appearance gave an observant onlooker the idea
that she would be more at home in a scanty robe and glittering
with rudely wrought ornaments of gold. Perhaps Peru, where she
came from, suggested the comparison, but Lucy's thoughts flew
back to an account of the Virgins of the Sun, which the Professor
had once described. It occurred to her, perhaps wrongly, that in
Donna Inez she beheld one who in former days would have been the
bride of some gorgeous Inca.
"I fear you will find England dull after the sunshine of Lima,"
said Lucy, having ended a swift examination.
Donna Inez shivered a trifle and glanced around at the gray misty
air through which the pale sunshine struggled with difficulty.
"I certainly prefer the tropics to this," she said in musical
English, "but my father has come down here on business, and until
it is concluded we shall remain in this place."
"Then we must make things as bright as possible for you," said
Mrs.
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