midnights
One had fancied that such lip-curves were mostly lurking underground in the South as fragments of forgotten marbles . So fine were the lines of her lips that , though full , each corner of her mouth was as clearly cut as the point of a spear . This keenness of corner was only blunted when she was given over to sudden fits of gloom , one of the phases of the night-side of sentiment which she knew too well for her years . Her presence brought memories of such things as Bourbon roses , rubies , and tropical midnights ; her moods recalled lotus-eaters and the march in `` Athalie '' ; her motions , the ebb and flow of the sea ; her voice , the viola . In a dim light , and with a slight rearrangement of her hair , her general figure might have stood for that of either of the higher female deities . The new moon behind her head , an old helmet upon it , a diadem of accidental dewdrops round her brow , would have been adjuncts sufficient to strike the note of Artemis , Athena , or Hera respectively , with as close an approximation to the antique as that which passes muster on many respected canvases . But celestial imperiousness , love , wrath , and fervour had proved to be somewhat thrown away on netherward Egdon .