First Chapter, First Paragraph Tuesday Intros

My first paragraph......

Ester's hand raced over the paper as if the colored pencils might be snatched from her, the quivering inside  her, wild, foreign, thrilling.   All this time she hadn't known that 'blue' was actually seven distinct shades, each with its own name--azure, Prussian, cobalt, cerulean, sapphire, indigo, lapis.  She pressed the waxy pencils on the paper, amazed by the emerging hues: the ornaments curving on the Armenian vase were lapis, the purplish contours of the Jerusalem mountains were shrouded by indigo evening clouds.  In this stolen hour at Mademoiselle Thibaux's dining-room table, she could draw without being scolded for committing the sin of idleness, God forbid.

Would you read it?  That is the question.   This is the book.

I am joining Diane from Bibliophile by the Sea and her

First Chapter, First Paragraph Meme.