midnight
It was this expression that arrested Isabel even more than the toilette , as she moved towards the divan without a word of greeting . It looked as if it had been put on with the costume , both intended to express a mood of the wearer : which might have been that of a tigress whose ferocity was slowly awakening with the approach of the victim . The black eyes were heavy with the lust of conquest , the points of the mouth turned up more sharply than usual ; there was an insatiable vanity in the commanding poise of her head . She was as little like the woman of the morning as the sun is like the midnight , and Isabel experienced a positive terror of her . Feeling sixteen and very foolish , she sank to the edge of a chair and muttered something about the charm of the room . Then , as Lady Victoria , who had arranged herself among the shining pillows , continued to stare at her with absolutely no change of expression , it dawned upon her that she had not been expected but that some one else was . With too little presence of mind left to retire gracefully and too much pride to appear to have ventured into the cave of Venus unasked , she managed to articulate her gratitude for the invitation of the morning .