I
THE WOMAN WITH THE DIAMOND
I was, perhaps, the plainest girl in the room that night. I was also the
happiest--up to one o\'clock. Then my whole world crumbled, or, at least,
suffered an eclipse. Why and how, I am about to relate.
I was not made for love. This I had often said to myself; very often of
late. In figure I am too diminutive, in face far too unbeautiful, for me to
cherish expectations of this nature. Indeed, love had never entered into my
plan of life, as was evinced by the nurse\'s diploma I had just gained after
three years of hard study and severe training.
I was not made for love. But if I had been; had I been gifted with
height, regularity of feature, or even with that eloquence of expression
which redeems all defects save those which savor of deformity, I knew
well whose eye I should have chosen to please, whose heart I should have
felt proud to win.