404 THE LOVER OF BEAUTY J 



glens and streams of her ancestral domains, with the reverential fealty 

 and devotedness of her people, for the uncongenial character of a 

 metropolitan abode. Devoutly did the Captain aspirate a hope, forlorn 

 we admit, that his regiment might be ordered to the ** Emerald Isle ;" 

 but it was in the mere fervour of excitement that he insinuated this 

 petition to the destinies, for in ** sober seriousness" he knew well that 

 there existed not the slightest probability of his desire being fulfilled. 

 In consequent joyless abstraction, he continued to eat, drink, and sleep, 

 to dress, dance, and adonize as usual, while his fancy was, perpetually, 

 revolving like an attendant satellite upon the unrivalled beauty of his 

 new-made coz. That comparisons were, for very good reasons, deemed 

 odious, he knew, nathless the gallant Hussar was framing them without 

 end, and numberless were the high-born belles, the former idols of his 

 worship, that were, unconsciously, compelled to yield the incense of his 

 homage to the charms of the unknown, the unpresented Lady Eleanor. 

 Neither the chisel of Behnes,* nor the pencil of Lawrence, nor the crayon 

 of Chalon, could reconcile him to those features which, enchanting as 

 they might be, varied from the divine resemblance in his heart ; and he 

 looked only to lament that neither the sculptor nor the painter had been 

 called upon to perpetuate that faultless form. ITie blue eyes of '* Lady 

 Mary," and the bright damask that bloomed on the soft cheek of " Lady 

 Anne," were now regarded with an air of indifference that marvelled at 

 former admiration, while the long auburn ringlets of the " Lady Emily," 

 that had once woven meshes around the heart of our hero, were gazed 

 upon with a disrelish for their golden shade. ** Had they been black ! 

 like hers — or like those Byron so luxuriantly describes V* Such was the 

 result of their then impression upon their once devoted admirer ! but their 

 possessor was unwitting of the change, and she parted her splendid 

 tresses, and braided them with pearls and gems, happily unconscious that 

 the hour of their dominion had waned away. "When ignorance is 

 bliss, 'tis folly to be wise." 



Further details of these depreciating impressions would be, we opine, 

 equally ungracious and superfluous : we will, therefore, as prudent 

 chroniclers, leave them to float easily down the stream of forgetfulness, 

 while we state with chronological conciseness that the Court mourning 

 cleared away like a mist on a May morning ; that the Royal Family, 

 idolized in all their movements, emigrated from Bushey to St. James's, 

 from St. James's to Windsor, from Windsor to ditto, and from ditto 

 settled down happily, quietly, and socially at Brighton, where loyalty 

 immediately rose to 212'^ of Fahrenheit. While these *' royal progresses" 

 were carried on, the elite were also on the qui vive ; sorrow and sables 

 were consigned, in company, to the tomb of *' all the Capulets," and 

 gaiety arose, phoenix-like, from the ashes of her funeral pyre. Sir Charles 

 ventured upon a laugh, and her Grace looked less like a mourning 

 Magdalen. The consequence was, rouge rose again in the market, while 

 pearl-powder fell something below par. 



The time of the blythe holly and mistletoe — the magic and captivating 

 mistletoe — was stealthily approaching, and November, like a weather- 

 beaten mariner, bound up in haze and fog, churled it over the deserted 

 chauss^e of the west. Aristocracy had flitted homewards, and closed its 

 proud wings for a season beneath the patrimonial tree ; the ancient hall 



* There is no sculptor of the day who surpasses Behnes in exquisite representa- 

 tion of the female countenance. Sweetness, intelligence, and contemplative love- 

 liness, with an air of patrician dignity, invariably distinguish his priceless per- 

 formances. She who wishes to live and breathe in marble the admiration of 

 succeeding ages, must be immortalized by this student of the graces. 



