noon
How did the mulatto woman impress you , Mr. St. George ? '' Miss Holland loosened her coat , revealing a little flowery waist , and leaned forward with parted lips . She was very beautiful , with the beauty of perfect , blooming , colourful youth , without line or shadow . She was in the very noon of youth , but her eyes did not wander after the habit of youth ; they were direct and steady and a bit critical , and she spoke slowly and with graceful sanity in a voice that was without nationality . She might have been the cultivated English-speaking daughter of almost any land of high civilization , or she might have been its princess . Her face showed her imaginative ; her serene manner reassured one that she had not , in consequence , to pay the usury of lack of judgment ; she seemed reflective , tender , and of a fine independence , tempered , however , by tradition and unerring taste . Above all , she seemed alive , receptive , like a woman with ten senses .