406 THE LOVER OF BEAUTY; 



to carelessly discharpre the serious duties of the toilet, he, after much 

 lingerin}?, presented himself once more in the drawing-room, determined 

 to throw away as little of his conversation as possible. " The woman 

 can have no wit," he exclaimed, " she certainly has neither taste nor 

 information, and as to a knowledge of the beau-monde ! it might as well 

 be exj ected from an Iroquois." Good Sir Captain ! you were mistaken ! 

 Miss Werner possessed wit brilliant and electrical, irony keen and 

 sportive, taste upon every subject of vertUy and information solid and 

 extensive, added to a knowledge of continental courts, which elicited 

 astonishment from the Captain. That she had read, thought, and 

 travelled much was evident ; and Henry sate alternately petrified with 

 surprise and transported with delight. Such a rare assemblage of intel- 

 lectual charms he had never met with, and the uncommon gratification 

 which it produced almost lured him into a forgetfulness that " she must 

 be at least thirty, was perfectly horrible and clumsy, evinced an 

 ignorance mparare, and wore immense slippers of black jean." These 

 were enormities, to be sure, but they met with partial apology in the 

 attractions of her conversation, which, opal-like, were continually 

 exhibiting bright changes. At the expiration of a short period, Henry 

 wondered what had become of the profound aversion with which he had 

 at first beheld her — it was gone — evaporated as essence in the air, and 

 had given place to a sort of palliatory consciousness that she was ** neither 

 pretty nor graceful.'* That listlessness and apathy which had frequently 

 absorbed his faculties when in the company of the beautiful but soul- 

 less Eleanor, was now exorcised as an evil geni, and his spirits revelled 

 in perpetual sunshine, constantly deriving a fresh stimulus from the 

 brilliancy, the playfulness, and eccentricity of his companion. The 

 Colonel and his lady appeared exceedingly amused with Henry's growing 

 partiality for the society of the somewhat dowdy Miss Werner; and the 

 Captain frequently suspected that they were privately enjoying a smile 

 at his expense : at first he felt startled, and diffident of being quizzed, 

 but reflection determined him to brave it. " She is captivating in her 

 manners," he apostrophized, ** and her mind is like a flawless diamond — 

 oh ! beauty ! beauty ! thou hast but poor chance beside her !" The 

 form of the Lady Eleanor, as he had at first beheld it, passed like a 

 vision before his eye : the sculptural sweetness and grandeur of her 

 inclined head ; tbe drooping of her long ebon tresses ; the marble purity 

 of her cheek and brow ; the full and downcast eye-lid ; the Grecian 

 nose ; the superbly chiselled mouth and chin ; the bust worthy of such 

 a head — all came vividly before him as by magic, and his heart beat with 

 the quickened pulse of admiration, when the recollection of the insipid 

 frivolity, the absolute absence of all rational endowments which lay 

 beneath that divine exterior, effectually chilled the rising fervour of his 

 original reminiscence. Yes — Miss Werner with her Ethiopian com- 

 plexion, her harsh and scanty locks, her obsolete head-dress, owl-like 

 ruff", and unbecoming blouse, dared to contest the palm with this peerless 

 flower of creation, and came off" victorious. It was ** sense versus 

 beauty," and the Captain, although by nature, education, and habit, gay, 

 thoughtless, and seemingly frivolous, possessed too much genuine under- 

 standing not to acknowledge the superiority of the former. In fact, the 

 image of the titled fair one faded insensibly from his imagination, and when 

 it did recur it was but to favour the ascendancy of the swarthy stranger. 

 We must still confess that the poor Captain sighed a dozen times a day that 

 Miss Werner was not beautiful. " Had she but borne the form of Lady 

 Eleanor, or had Lady Eleanor been gifted with her mind, he would have 

 declared himself at once, and hazarded the happiness of his life upon 



