MATTHEW AND JEMIMA. 299 



comer. Whilst the young lady and her mamma pursued " the even 

 tenor of their way" walking from one end of the garden to the other, 

 Matthew contrived, by sundry dextrous evolutions, to be always at 

 their elbow, and the black languishing eye and playful smile of 

 Jemima rivetted his chains. 



The gardens continued to be visited for several successive evenings 

 with the most laudable constancy by Mrs. and Miss Golightly ; the 

 former, indeed, appeared to have conceived a fresh ardour for 

 exercise, and so completely was her mind engrossed by the fresh 

 foliage and gaudy flowers of spring, that the incessant re-apparition 

 of young Evergreen, and the fixed eye with which he viewed her 

 daughter, obvious as they were, never caught her attention ; and the 

 only remark known to have escaped her was, that " she believed 

 young Evergreen would one day be entitled to a large fortune." 



CHAP. III. THE DECLARATION. 



OUR hero, though so deeply smitten, was but a raw and timid 

 youth ; he could perceive well enough that his oeillctdes in the gar- 

 dens were favourably received. But how to push his fortune, and 

 bring about a more intimate acquaintance ? these were difficulties 

 which he knew not how to surmount j he confined himself, therefore, 

 to looking " unutterable things." But this scarcely suited the more 

 enterprising temper of Jemima, who would have had looks, tender 

 as they were, exchanged for words and actions. Her mother's love 

 of exercise, too, began to relax, and the whole affair wore a less pro- 

 mising aspect; when fortune smiled, as it always should, upon tneir 

 young lives, and brought about that introduction which Evergreen's 

 ingenuity never would have accomplished. A common friend of the 

 two families appeared one evening in the garden, and was the means 

 of bringing them together. But even here Evergreen's courage 

 failed him, and though walking by the side of the enchantress, every 

 word, like Mackbeth's ie amen," stuck in his throat. He hummed 

 and hummed, and never looked more like a simpleton; in short, <the 

 opportunity thus thrown in his way would have been lost if Jemima, 

 with more presence of mind and address than her companion, had not 

 assisted him. Mrs. Golightly and her friend were soon so much ab- 

 sorbed in an interesting discussion on the obliquities, mental and 

 physical, of the Reverend Mr. Irving, that the young couple were 

 left entirely to themselves ; and, although their intercourse had been 

 hitherto confined to the language of the eyes, they soon came to un- 

 derstand each other as thoroughly as if they had been acquainted 

 from their infancy. 



" Thought leaped to thought, and wish prevented wish." 



Sympathy, mysterious and undefinable, with what silent eloquence 

 dostthou express thyself! Words the vulgar vehicles of thought, thou 

 banishest from the commerce of true love, which, as if jealous even 

 of te the wanton air," exchanges its faithful vows without a whisper. 

 Happy moment ! Que de choses se sont diles, says Rousseau, sans 

 ouvrir la bouche I que d' ardent sentimens se sont communiques sans la 

 frolde entremise de la parole ! The happy understanding between the 

 lovers was full complete ! 



