If Beauty…

I am rereading Edith Wharton’s books at the moment, and reveling in her divine prose – her intricacies and sophisticated turns of phrase. Here is one that inspired this work:

“She was a beauty, if beauty, instead of being restricted to the cast of face, is a pervasive attribute informing the hands, the voice, the gestures, the very fall of a flounce and tilt of a feather.”