The days of gold which linked themselves one to another with strange dawns of pearl and exquisite awakenings, each a miracle, the gemmed night whose blue darkness seemed studded with myriads of new stars, the noons whose heats or rains were all warm scents of flowers and fragrant mists, wrought themselves into a chain of earthly beauty.

The hour in which the links must break and the chain end was always a faint spectre veiled by kindly mists which seemed to rise hour by hour to soften and hide it.
But often in those days did it occur that the hurrying and changing visitors to the house in Eaton Square, glancing at Robin as she sat writing letters, or as she passed them in some hall or room, found themselves momentarily arrested in an almost startled fashion by the mere radiance of her.
"She is lovelier every time one turns one's head towards her," the Starling said--the Starling having become a vigorous worker and the Duchess giving welcome to any man, woman or child who could be counted on for honest help.

"It almost frightens me to see her eyes when she looks up suddenly.

It is like finding one's self too close to a star.

A star in the sky is all very well--but a star only three feet away from one is a kind of shock.