312 THE LOVER OF BEAUTY; 



" Eleanor, my love, I have brought you one of the new relation- 

 ships with which my recent engagement has lionoured me : 



Captain Henry Atherstone, of the Regiment, younger 



brother to my liege Lord, and, par consequent, your cousin. 

 Lady Eleanor Byrne." The fair reader had started from her 

 half- recumbent position, and a blush which shamed the rose-bud 

 that bloomed delicately in the Captain's button-hole, passed 

 over her before marble countenance. A smile of singular cha- 

 racter hovered round the mouth of Mrs. Atherstone, as the 

 Captain bowed to the introduction, and as soon as the brief 

 forms of etiquette were over, the lady quitted the room, saying, 

 *• I leave you in excellent company. Lady Eleanor, my brother 

 is voue aux dames, and, I doubt not, will experience, in your 

 society, a haj)py relief from the barbarisms of this uncivilized 

 spot : adieu, au revoir ! I have promised to accompany Mel- 

 ville in a drive, and I never disappoint him." She waved her 

 hand, again smiled, peculiarly, and vanished. 



" What a strange woman," thought Henry, " but her caprice 

 favours me delightfully : I can now beat up an acquaintance, 

 before dinner, with this exquisite Hibernian. But let me see — 

 she bears the stamp of intellect — of high intellect — that temple 

 so exquisitely curved, that cheek, that brow and lip— Phidias 

 never chiselled anything more beautiful !" and from the lady, 

 who had resumed her seat, and sate silent and motionless, as if 

 waiting for his address, his eye passed by an association of 

 ideas to some superb marbles that enriched the corners of the 

 apartment. "I must approach cautiously, deferentially, senti- 

 mentally, perhaps: no rattling, no etourderie, no finical foppery 

 will do — by Jove ! I dread her in her loveliness! mais pour 

 commencer," he touched upon the scenery of the country she had 

 travelled through ; she raised her head, eyes, dark and radiant 

 as the gems of the East, beamed lustrously upon him, and lips, 

 like twin-roses, severed to display teeth whiter than the pearls 

 of the ocean, while, at the same time, they gave utterance to 

 one of the silliest replies imaginable. Had the Apollo, resigning 

 his awful sweetness and majesty, looked down upon him with a 

 broad grin, or had the Goddess of Wisdom, herself, indulged in 

 the horse-laugh of Billingsgate, poor Henry could not have been 

 more stricken with amazement : his very breath failed him from 

 the intensity of his surprise, but, recovering, he renewed the 

 attempted conversation, and with no better success; tones of 

 affectation, embodying remarks^ which, like the old currency, 

 had been worn out in circulation, were all that he could elicit. 



" And is this magnificent looking creature a mere deception ?" 

 he mentally apostrophised, "is there no gem within this peerless 

 casket ? has nature been so lavish of the outward adornment as 

 to refuse all interior decoration ?" " Surely, if ever the features 

 warranted a supposition of mental brilliancy, it were here !" he 

 continued, gazing with wonder upon the classical beauty which 



