Sarah Mac’s Reviews > The Soul of Countess Adrian > Status Update

“I will give you of my strength & of my life. I will give you of my spirit & of my sense, till my soul itself shall live in you, & in loving you he shall love me whom he has scorned. This shall be my bridal gift to you, & w/ my kiss I seal it.” The ripe red lips of Countess Adrian bent down to Beatrice’s lips & clung to them in a vampire kiss which seemed to drain the very life-breath from the girl’s body.’

‘“Beatrice…my darling!” Lendon cried; & he would gave taken her in his arms then & there; but something in her clear, pure eyes, in her strange bright smile, that was so sweet & yet so cold, something in her statuesque attitude rebuked his lover’s ardor.’ ….Interestingly mixed description of the heroine.

‘Sometimes she had all the dignity of a great lady pure & simple; sometimes she would smoke a cigarette, & toss off her little glass of cognac w/ the unrestraint of a coquette. Yet thru all these chameleon changes she was always herself, racy, original, daring, refined, & altogether brilliant, w/ that nameless shadow of sadness, that not too obtrusive touch of the sensuous, which increased her bewildering charm.’

“You don’t know how I feel when she looks at me,” the girl went on hurriedly; “I seem to lose all power, & even all sense of individuality. You can imagine nothing more horrible than the sensation of spiritual blankness & desolation & helplessness. It is like having the evil eye upon me.” ….I think Beatrice is confusing Countess Adrian with Facebook. 🫣

‘He was careful not to speak to her of love; he saw that the time was not yet ripe; & then, too, her attitude towards him seemed as if it intended to convey the impression that they met on a kind of neutral & shadowy ground, & that she did not belong to his world, nor he to hers.’

“And you thought,” she said, with a dash of cynicism in her tone, “that women are to be won by generosity! You are mistaken, my friend. There are few women with whom a bad man has not a better chance than a good one; at all events, with whom tyranny hasn’t a better chance than tender devotion.” ….Hmm. 🤔Villainous bad-boy lust? Cynical author’s observation? Or merely trolling the audience?

‘Who cared that the rich red lips, parted so as to show a double row of small glistening teeth, were so red & so ripe as to suggest sense rather than soul? Soul somehow was the last attribute one would associate w/ Countess Adrian. A glorious creature certainly—an intellectual creature—a creature w/ will, emotion, force of character, noble instinct it might be; but always of the flesh, & not of the spirit.’

—“I am sorry that it makes you sad.”
—“I like everything that is sad,” she answered. “It is my temperament. I adore moonlight; I love grey skies, & wintery effects, & autumnal tints, & melancholy music—all that is flickering, vague, & suggestive.”