AND A BELLE. 129 



the human column — was it that of a pale-eyed, in- 

 sipid, white-browed blonde — or — ? 



"My God! how wonderfully lovely !" rose almost 

 to the lips of Fairfax, but he checked the impulse, and 

 gazed in mute wonder, silent adoration. Was ever 

 any thing so strangely, wonderfully, beautiful. 



Those exuberant masses of soft light hair, every 

 mazy tendril glittering in the candle light a ring of 

 gold — that low, broad, ivory forehead, those straight 

 fine-cut brows, and long-fringed lashes, black as night ; 

 those large eyes, deep, deep velvet brown, humid and 

 lustrous ; the regular oval of the pale, transparent 

 face ; the shapely Grecian nose, the least in the world 

 retrousse, gi^iiig an arch character to the whole ; the 

 dark carnation lips, softly pouting, the pearly teeth 

 sparkling between them ; the rosy-rounded chin, set, 

 how deliciously, upon the swelling throat 



Percy Fairfax had from his boyhood been a, fanatic 

 for beauty, and — though he had in badinage forsworn 

 it to his dark Cleopatra of the minute — a fanatic for 

 blonde beauty. A poet and a dreamer, he had dreamed 

 aif ideal not as yet found, never he fancied to be found 

 except in the fairy regions of the mind. 



And now she stood before him. Self-possessed 

 conventionalist, case-hardened citizen of the world as 

 he was, his heart fluttered fast for a minute, his brain 

 swam, his eyes were darkened, he was recalled only by 

 the arch voice and liquid laugh of the Cheshire at his 

 ear. 



" Oh ! traitor. So you do think the insipid blonde 

 beautiful ! She is unappropriated, I told you. Colonel, 

 shall I present you?" 



*' Not for the world !" 



"Not for the world! La!" said Lady Ches. 

 " Why ? Do you think her too dangerous ? I thought 

 you did not admire blondes ?" 

 177 



