The Good Girl Author:Vincent O'Sullivan 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: her general appearance and carriage which forbade the supposition of the working artist, of a woman who lived entirely in the sight of the public. She had none o... more »f that unmistakable look of assertiveness and insecurity which is often the mark of the artists in all arts who know that they exist only to give pleasure, and which serves as a kind of fraternal recognition between themselves. She looked as if she lived rather for amusement than to amuse. There was much good-nature in her face, and, thought Vendred, immense goodness. At present she leant back wholly occupied with the music, her head a little bent; and on her half-parted lips and in her splendid eyes there hovered a smile, vague, and tender, and sadly charming. . . . When the concert was over, Vendred stood with his back against the row of stalls till she passed. She passed, tall and gracious, covered by a huge black cloak which reached her heels, and as she went by she turned to her companion, an older woman, and said something insignificant in a delightful low-pitched voice which proved to Vendred that he was right when he had determined she was English. He gave his friend a curt good-bye and left him standing there, while he made his way rather roughly up-stairs through the crowd. But when he had gained the street, he only caught a glimpse some distance off of that memorable head, easily visible above the throng by reason of her tallness; and even as he was looking, she and her friend stepped into a motor-car and were whisked away. Vendred looked about wildly. Shemust not go out of his life like that! Then he perceived the uselessness of any attempt to get one more look. Supposing he could pick up a cab, how was he to catch up the motor, now several streets beyond? He had better go home. He walked down Regent S...« less