144 



swelled evenly downward, without any plaiting or 

 sharp division between the skirt and corsage, into a 

 fall of massive draperies, perfectly concealing yet as 

 perfectly suggesting the contour of her tall, lythe and 

 rounded person. The tip of a brightly-polished Wel- 

 lington boot, with a bright silver spur, glanced from 

 beneath the hem, which she lifted a little with her left 

 hand, as she stepped forward to welcome her father's 

 guest, extending her right to greet him. A low- 

 crowned broad-leafed hat, with a short black veil 

 scarcely descending to the chin, lay on the table with 

 a pair of white doe-skin gauntlets and a heavy straight 

 silver-mounted jockey whip beside it. 



So grave and even melancholy was her usually bril- 

 liant face, that the idea occurred to Fairfax, as he took 

 the fair hand in his own, and bowed over it with some- 

 thing of the grace of the ancient regime, that La Pen- 

 seroso was before him masking in the character of L' 

 Allegro, or that the Christian Saint, Cecilia, had donned 

 the heathenish garb of the huntress Diana. 



A feeling, the like of Avhich he had certainly never 

 felt before, and which he could not explain to himself, 

 came over him ; and came over him too in some sort 

 unpleasantly ; for it was a sentiment of something 

 nearly akin to reverence, and he was one who, if he 

 reverenced at all, chose to reverence according to 

 what it pleased him to call the dictates of reason, not 

 of impulse. The worst features of his character, his 

 pride, which was cold, and his obstinacy, which was 

 perdurate, were aroused to resist what he chose to 

 consider his weakness, and he listened to these ill- 

 counsellors, and did ill. 



*' To speak frankly," she added, almost without a 

 pause, ^' as I think best to do, I am not altogether 

 sorry that Papa is not at home, for I want to speak a 

 few words alone with you, and did not know when I 



