I was now the most significant of our company.

Proud-eyed, disdainful, I met unwavering the eyes upon me and made them drop, or turn away--all eyes but one.

These were the eyes of a young woman, whom I judged, by richness of dress and by the half-dozen women fluttering at her back, to be a court lady of distinction.

In truth, she was the Lady Om, princess of the house of Min.

Did I say young?
She was fully my own age, thirty, and for all that and her ripeness and beauty a princess still unmarried, as I was to learn.
She alone looked me in the eyes without wavering until it was I who turned away.