Explore "The Bird of Paradise" by E. Phillips Oppenheim on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Lucienne de Montelimar, a dazzlingly attractive young woman, with her yellow-gold hair, her deep brown eyes, and her perfect complexion, only beautified by its coat of sunburn, sat upon the topmost of the steps leading from the _château_ grounds to the private dock and gazed thoughtfully across the bay to where, at about a hundred yards' distance, the _Bird of Paradise_ lay at anchor. In something like thirty seconds after her arrival Hamer Wildburn had dived from his boat with a terrific splash and was swimming powerfully towards her. She welcomed him with the smile which had already turned the heads of half the young men in Paris.
"You are swimming well this morning," she approved. "I am afraid that if we race you will beat me. Nevertheless, we shall try presently."