Through the windows of the dining-room she could see the long grape arbour and the gray boughs of the crepe myrtle trees in the garden.
She had dressed herself carefully for the occasion in a black gown that followed closely the lines of her figure.

Her beauty, which a painter in Europe had once compared to a lamp, was still so radiant that it seemed to drain the colour and light from her surroundings.

Even Patty, with her fresh youth, lost a little of her vividness beside the glowing maturity of the other woman.

When Corinna had accepted the girl's invitation, she had resolved that she would do her best; that, however tiresome it was, she would "carry it off." Always a match for any situation that did not include Kent Page or a dangerous emotion, she felt entirely competent to "manage," as Mrs.Culpeper would have said, the most radical of Governors.

She liked the man in spite of his errors; she was sincerely attached to Patty; and their artless respect for her opinion gave her a sense of power which she told herself merrily was "almost political." Though the Governor might be without the rectitude which both Benham and Stephen regarded as fundamental, she perceived clearly that, even if Vetch were lacking in the particular principle involved, he was not devoid of some moral excellence which filled not ignobly the place where principle should have been.