26 TRAVEL, ADVENTURE, AND SPORT. 



step she advanced towards me, keeping the very 

 centre of the narrow road, I felt that I positively 

 grew pale with anxiety as the veiled face came level 

 with my horse's head. Was I fated to see only that 

 provoking bit of white gauze that so effectually 

 concealed the face beneath? or was I to be dazzled 

 with the beauty it so jealously guarded 1 For a few 

 seconds I was in anxious doubt, and then the rosy- 

 tipped fingers held back for one instant the white 

 gauze veil that fell before the face. And the beauty 

 that shone upon me during that one short instant 

 was one I have never forgotten never can forget. 

 It was not the soft beauty that floats down upon 

 you from the eyes of the Fornarina no, far from it ; 

 nor was it the beauty of a Magdalen, beaming with 

 love and affection. Yet, by some strange freak of 

 memory, when I recalled afterwards the beautiful 

 vision, I was oddly enough reminded of both. Such 

 a momentary glimpse was it, that I find a delineation 

 of each particular feature utterly impossible ; but I 

 will write as far as I am able that which remains as a 

 fair memory of the past. The hair parted IOAV on the 

 forehead, but the hood of the veil, coming well for- 

 Avard, allowed only a little of it to be seen. That, I 

 could not but observe, was black and glossy as a 

 raven's wing, and the glitter of gold showed that 

 a few coins were "wreathed in the dark midnight 

 of her hair." The eyebrows were not arched, but 

 appeared either by nature or art, I had not time to 



