There was a wild recklessness of gaiety in his manner as he sat at table, but now and then a thrill of terror ran through him when he remembered that, pressed against the window of the conservatory, like a white handkerchief, he had seen the face of James Vane watching him.
– Oscar Wilde
The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 17. Dorian sits down at the table with his guests, having fallen faint a little earlier in his conservatory. He is terrified because he saw the face of James Vane pressed against the conservatory window watching him. The face is compared, in a simile, to a white hankerchief. Dorian is fearful that Vane wants to kill him in revenge for his sister’s suicide. But there is also a reckless gaiety about Dorian’s manner at dinner, now that his crimes are catching up with him.