18'26.] Old Neighbours — An Admiral on Shore. 383 



possible to supply their deficiency from her supcr-abundaiicc ; she was 

 three or four-and-twenty, too, past the age of mere young-ladyism, and 

 entirely unaccomplished, if she could be called so, who joined to the 

 most elegant manners a highly cultivated understanding and a remark- 

 able talent for conversation. Nothing could exceed the fascination of her 

 delicate and poignant raillery, her voice and smile were so sweet, and 

 her wit so light and glancmg. A poet might have said of her, that her 

 shafts were planted with dove's feathers. She had the still rare merit 

 of being either entirely free from vanity, or of keeping it in such good 

 order, that it never appeared in look or word. Conversation, much as 

 she excelled in it, was not necessary to her, as it is to most eminent 

 talkers. I think she enjoyed quiet observation, full as much, if not 

 more ; and at such times, there was something of good-humoured malice 

 in her bright hazel eye, that spoke more than she ever allowed her 

 tongue to utter. Her father's odd ways, for instance, and her motlicr's 

 authorship, and her sister's lack-a-daisicalness, amused her rather more 

 than they ought to have done; but she had never lived with them, 

 having been brought up by an aunt who had recently died leaving her a 

 splendid fortune ; and even now that she had come to reside at home, 

 was treated by her parents, although very kindly, rather as an honoured 

 guest than a cherished daughter. 



Anne Floyd was a sweet creature in spite of a little over-acuteness. 

 I used to think she wanted nothing but a little falling in Jove to soften 

 her proud spirit, and tame her bright eye ; but falling in love was quite 

 out of her way — she had the unfortunate distrust of an heiress satiated 

 with professions of attachment, and suspecting every man of wooing her 

 fortune rather than herself. By dint of hearing exaggerated praise of 

 her beauty, she had even come to think herself plain ; perhaps another 

 circumstance a little contributed to this persuasion — she was said to be, 

 and undoubtedly was, remarkably like her father. There is no account- 

 ing for the strange freaks that nature plays in the matter of family like- 

 ness. The admiral was certainly as ugly a little man as one should see 

 in a summer day, and Anne was as certainly a very pretty young woman : 

 yet it was quite impossible to see them together and not be struck with 

 the extreme and even absurd resemblance between Lis old battered face 

 and her bright and sparkling countenance. To have been so like my 

 good friend the admiral might have cured a lighter spirit of vanity. 



Julia, the j^ounger and favourite daughter, was a fine tall handsome 

 girl of nineteen, just what her mother must have been at the same age ; 

 she had been entirely brought up by Mrs. Floyd, except when deposited 

 from time to time in various country boarding schools, whilst that good 

 lady enjoyed the pleasure of a cruise. Miss Julia exhibited the not 

 uncommon phenomenon of having imbibed the opposite faults to those 

 of her instructress, and was soft, mincing, languid, affected, and full of 

 airs and graces of the very worst sort ; but I don't Icnow that she was 

 much more ignorant and silly than a girl of nineteen, with a neglected 

 education, must needs be ; and she had the farther excuse of being a 

 spoiled child. Her father doated upon her, and thought her the most 

 accomplished young woman of the age ; for certain, she could play a 

 little, and sing a little, and paint a little, and talk a little very bad 

 French, and dance and dress a great deal. She had also cultivated her 

 mind by reading all the love-stories and small poetry that came in her 

 way ; corresponded largely with half-a-dozen bosom friends picked up at 



