this passage from brideshead (sorry, i am addicted)....'Through those halcyon weeks she darted and shone...'
'part of the sunshine between the trees, part of the candlelight in the mirror's spectrum, '
'so that elderly men and women, sitting aside with their memories, saw her as herself the blue-bird...'
'She brought to all whose eyes were open to it a moment of joy,'
'such as strikes deep to the heart on the river's bank when the kingfisher suddenly flames across dappled water.'