'''"Glasses"''' is a [[1896]] short story by [[Henry James]].

==Plot summary==

A very sad tale of James’, centering on the vanity of a young woman, her love of her own
beauty will cost her her eyesight and its all in pursuit of love and marriage; the narrator is
an artist, once again the pretty girl comes to sit for a portrait, a favorite method of James
that he used many times to put himself in his stories; this artist meets the girl in
Folkestone where he has gone “for a blow” and to visit his mother; he sees the girl and is
struck by her beauty; later after dinner, standing with her under the stars he becomes
more fascinated, seeing her again while out walking he introduces her to his mother and
asked if it is true that she has something wrong with her eyes; it brings her to tears and
she claims its all a “horrid lie.”

Eventually she sits for a portrait and the artist is mesmerized by her beauty for a time,
then comes to find that she has only her beauty, which he has been told by friend Mrs.
Meldrum, who is known by her large unattractive glasses that she must wear as her
eyesight is terrible; the young Lady, a Miss Flora Saunt has something strange about her
and Meldrum says it has something to do with her eyes, they find that she has been to
specialist throughout Europe who have advised she must wear corrective lenses, which in
that day, late 19th century, were large and ugly frames with very thick glass; the young
Lady does not because she is waiting to get married and her vanity will not allow her, she
hides it from all her suitors, namely a young man from France who will become Lord
Considine, a man of means, once his father dies.

The poor girl has a small inheritance but will run out of money before getting married, a
Mr. Geoffrey Dawling is in love with her and falls in love with her beauty from the
portraits before he ever meets her, but she finds him physically repulsive . Though he is
a man of means, he is not a good looking man, though compassionate and willing to do or
accept anything about Flora, she wants Lord Considine, to whom she becomes engaged;
the artist goes to America to work as he is much in demand and hears nothing of what is
happening with Flora while he is gone. He returns as his mother is dying there in
Folkestone, where much of the action takes place, home of Meldrum; he returns from
America to see his mother before she dies, then goes to see Meldrum at Folkestone,
thinks he sees her at a distance because its a woman with large eye glasses, but it is Flora
and she realizes that he thought he saw Meldrum;

The girl is staying with Meldrum as her money has run out, and her eyesight has grown
much worse, thinking that if she exercises by walking miles and miles every day, that
will somehow heal her eyes, their talk is brief and Flora continues on, remarking
sarcastically, would you like for me to sit for you now? Upon arrival Meldrum says its
all a tragical belief in herself, that no amount of exercise will make her eyes better, the
engagement was broken when young Lord Considine found out the truth, that she could
not see her own hand before her face, he offers money but ends his proposal for marriage,
she hit rock bottom and moved in with Meldrum, still refusing the hand of Dawling; the
artist waits for her at Meldrum's but soon he must catch his train and return to London.
His mother dies but when he returns to Folkestone, Meldrum and Flora have gone
abroad; the artist heads back to America where he stays for three years

He stay is not interrupted with thoughts of Flora, he is busy with his work, returning to
London he attends an Opera during the 2nd act, he looks thru a glass at the people in the
boxes and there is Flora in a box off to the side by herself, looking more beautiful than
ever, she grabs her ivory glass and appears to look at the artist and smile, he is excited
and rushes out to visit her in her box, coming in she hears him and turns and says oh
“here you are again!” She offers her hand and he kisses it, but she abruptly pulls back
with a challenging stare, she grabs his arm and feels him and suddenly he knows, she is
completely blind, she thought he was someone else, someone without a moustache; he
tells her “You’re lovelier at this day than you have ever been in your life.” Dawling
comes into the box and she exclaims to him what she has just heard from the artist, its all
she cares about, her beauty, the comment makes her day that she has not lost her looks,
forget being blind. Dawling is embarrassed and says very little about the affair.
Meldrum helped them get together, but she refuses to speak of it or have anything to do
with them.

So Dawling gets his girl and Flora retains her beauty, going blind in the process. It is true
love for both, with the irony that as Flora cannot see the physical features of Dawling its
ok to accept marriage, plus she ran out of options. Dawling has undying love for Flora
and proves it by accepting the fact that he was her last choice.

==Characters==
*Miss Flora Saunt, a young woman of uncommon beauty and excessive vanity, orphaned
*Mrs. Meldrum, a war widow livng in Folkestone within sight of the coast of France
*Mr. Geoffrey Dawling, Oxford intellectual in love with Flora
*Lord Iffield, soon to be Lord Considine, briefly engaged to Flora
*Narrator, the Artist, a James favorite

==Misc==
Story was published in Atlantic Monthly Feb. 1896
Complete Stories 1892–1898 from Library of America *[http://www.loa.org/volume.jsp?
RequestID=63]

==External links==
*[http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/1195]-Full Text

{{DEFAULTSORT:Glasses}}
[[Category:Short stories by Henry James]]
[[Category:1896 short stories]]