She was very different from the other girls he knew , but he decided that he liked the difference . `` Are you going to the party at Baileys ' tomorrow night ? '' he asked , as he helped her to alight at her door . `` I do n't know , '' she answered . `` I 'm invited -- but I 'm all alone -- and parties have never been very much in my line . '' There was a wistful note in her voice , and Lawrence detecting it , said hurriedly , not giving himself time to get frightened : `` Oh , you 'd better go to this one . And if you like , I 'll call around and take you . '' He wondered if she would think him very presumptuous . He thought her voice sounded colder as she said : `` I am afraid that it would be too much trouble for you . '' `` It would n't be any trouble at all , '' he stammered . `` I 'll be very pleased to take you . '' In the end Bessy had consented to go , and the next evening Lawrence called for her in the rose-red autumn dusk . Bessy was ready and waiting . She was dressed in what was for her unusual elegance , and Lawrence wondered why people called Bessy Houghton so plain . Her figure was strikingly symmetrical and softly curved . Her abundant , dark-brown hair , instead of being parted plainly and drawn back into a prim coil as usual , was dressed high on her head , and a creamy rose nestled amid the becoming puffs and waves . She wore black , as she usually did , but it was a lustrous black silk , simply and fashionably made , with frost-like frills of lace at her firm round throat and dainty wrists . Her cheeks were delicately flushed , and her wood-brown eyes were sparkling under her long lashes . She offered him a half-opened bud for his coat and pinned it on for him . As he looked down at her he noticed what a sweet mouth she had -- full and red , with a half child-like curve .
The fact that Lawrence Eastman took Bessy XXXXX to the Baileys ' party made quite a sensation at that festal scene .
Baileys Bessy Houghton Lawrence end eyes hair half people trouble