While at the party, Lady Eleanore begins to become positively radiant--a characteristic possibly attributed to the early stages of smallpox, if indeed her mantle carries the contagion.

. . . her figure ever after recurred to them as marked by something wild and unnatural-although, at the time, the general whisper was of her exceeding beauty, and of the indescribable charm which her mantle threw about her. Some close observers, indeed, detected a feverish flush and alternate paleness of countenance . . .