Again there were conflicting opinions. You might have to shoot him
on sight, and you might have him invariably run from you. When the
question was finally settled, Maruja was found to have become
absorbed in conversation with some one else.
Amita, a taller copy of Maruja, and more regularly beautiful, had
built up a little pile of bread crumbs between herself and Raymond,
and was listening to him with a certain shy, girlish interest that
was as inconsistent with the serene regularity of her face as
Maruja's self-possessed, subtle intelligence was incongruous to her
youthful figure. Raymond's voice, when he addressed Amita, was low
and earnest; not from any significance of matter, but from its
frank confidential quality.
"They are discussing the new railroad project, and your relations
are all opposed to it; to-morrow they will each apply privately to
Aladdin for the privilege of subscribing."
"I have never seen a railroad," said Amita, slightly coloring;
"but you are an engineer, and I know they must be some thing very
clever."
Notwithstanding the coolness of the night, a full moon drew the
guests to the veranda, where coffee was served, and where,
mysteriously muffled in cloaks and shawls, the party took upon
itself the appearance of groups of dominoed masqueraders, scattered
along the veranda and on the broad steps of the porch in gypsy-like
encampments, from whose cloaked shadow the moonlight occasionally
glittered upon a varnished boot or peeping satin slipper.
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