Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: DR. ELLEN 'IHE girl appeared disproportionately happy, even - absurdly so. Amsden had watched her during the somewhat stupid finals of the tennis tournament that afternoon, his attention caught by an impression of surface brilliance that made her seem of another race from the young women about her in the little hot grandstand. The brilliance was not of colour, for the faint powdery blondness of her hair found little contrast in her light hazel eyes and even paleness; it was the breathless happiness shining out that made her seem so vivid. She was full of eager laughs that spilled over at the lightest touch. Her eyes followed the balls back and forth with joyous abandon; she cried out at tense moments, and beat her parasol on the platform in applause. She seemed to have an inordinate capacity for trivial excitements, vaguely repelling in a young woman who was clearly out of her teens. Later, Amsden, who had paused near the door of the ballroom, found her looking on there with the same intensity, and extracting from the conversation of Will Wallace a stimulating charm which to Amsden's positive knowledge did not exist. Had she beenfifteen! But time had marked her twenty-three or four at least; besides, she was evidently with Christine O'Hara, and Christine was no missionary to de"bu- tantes. Amsden's eyes followed the latter's light red curls about the ballroom until they paused near an open window, then he crossed to her with a deliberate slowness that was not at all a stroll. In all his actions there was a neat precision that precluded any impression of loose-jointed carelessness. Christine's smile at his approach had a histrionic quality. " Me to be so honoured!" it said as she turned from a red and shiny partner some seven years her juinor -- the tournament dance ...