Amiam: che non ha tregua
Con1 gli anni umana vita, e si dilegua.
Amiam: che il sol si muore, e poi rinasce;
A noi sua breve luce
S'asconde, e il sonno eterna notte adduce.
Tasso: Aminta.
Love, while youth knows its prime,
For mortal life can make no truce3 with time.
Love: for the sun goes down to rise as bright;
To us his transient light
Is veiled, and sleep comes on with everlasting4 night.
Lord Curryfin was too much a man of the world to devote his attentions in society exclusively to one, and make them the subject of special remark. He left the inner drawing-room, and came up to the doctor to ask him if he knew the young lady who had sung the last ballad5. The doctor knew her well. She was Miss Niphet, the only daughter of a gentleman of fortune, residing a few miles distant.
Lord Curryfin. As I looked at her while she was singing, I thought of Southey's description of Laila's face in Thadaba:
A broad light floated o'er its marble paleness,
As the wind waved the fountain fire.
Marble paleness suits her well. There is something statuesque in her whole appearance. I could not help thinking what an admirable Camilla she would make in Cimarosa's Orazii. Her features are singularly regular. They had not much play, but the expression of her voice was such as if she felt the full force of every sentiment she uttered.
The Rev2. Dr. Opimian. I consider her to be a person of very deep feeling, which she does not choose should appear on the surface. She is animated6 in conversation when she is led into it. Otherwise, she is silent and retiring, but obliging in the extreme; always ready to take part in anything that is going forward She never needs, for example, being twice asked to sing. She is free from the vice7 which Horace ascribes to all singers, of not complying when asked, and never leaving off when they have once begun. If this be a general rule, she is an exception to it.
Lord Curryfin. I rather wonder she does not tinge8 her cheeks with a slight touch of artificial red, just as much as would give her a sort of blush-rose complexion9.
Miss Ilex. You will not wonder when you know her better. The artificial, the false in any degree, however little, is impossible to her. She does not show all she thinks and feels, but what she does show is truth itself.
Lord Curryfin. And what part is she to take in the Aristophanic comedy?
The Rev. Dr. Opimian. She is to be the leader of the chorus.
Lord Curryfin. I have not seen her at the rehearsals10.
The Rev. Dr. Opimian. So far, her place has been supplied. You will see her at the next.
In the meantime, Mr. Falconer had gone into the inner drawing-room, sat down by Miss Gryll, and entered into conversation with her. The doctor observed them from a distance, but with all the opportunity he had had for observation, he was still undetermined in his opinion of the impression they might have made on each other.
'It is well,' he said to himself, 'that Miss Ilex is an old maid. If she were as young as Morgana, I think she would win our young friend's heart. Her mind is evidently much to his mind. But so would Morgana's be, if she could speak it as freely. She does not; why not? To him at any rate. She seems under no restraint to Lord Curryfin. A good omen11, perhaps. I never saw a couple so formed for each other. Heaven help me! I cannot help harping12 on that string. After all, the Vestals are the obstacle.'
Lord Curryfin, seeing Miss Niphet sitting alone at the side of the room, changed his place, sate13 down by her, and entered into conversation on the topics of the day, novels, operas, pictures, and various phenomena14 of London life. She kept up the ball with him very smartly. She was every winter, May, and June, in London, mixed much in society, and saw everything that was to be seen. Lord Curryfin, with all his Protean15 accomplishments16, could not start a subject on which she had not something to say. But she originated nothing. He spoke17, and she answered. One thing he remarked as singular, that though she spoke with knowledge of many things, she did not speak as with taste or distaste of any. The world seemed to flow under her observation without even ruffling18 the surface of her interior thoughts. This perplexed19 his versatile20 lordship. He thought the young lady would be a subject worth studying: it was clear that she was a character. So far so well. He felt that he should not rest satisfied till he was able to define it.
The theatre made rapid progress. The walls were completed. The building was roofed in. The stage portion was so far finished as to allow Mr. Pallet to devote every morning to the scenery. The comedy was completed. The music was composed. The rehearsals went on with vigour21, but for the present in the drawing-rooms.
Miss Niphet, returning one morning from a walk before breakfast, went into the theatre to see its progress, and found Lord Curryfin swinging over the stage on a seat suspended by long ropes from above the visible scene. He did not see her. He was looking upwards22, not as one indulging in an idle pastime, but as one absorbed in serious meditation23. All at once the seat was drawn24 up, and he disappeared in the blue canvas that represented the sky. She was not aware that gymnastics were to form part of the projected entertainment, and went away, associating the idea of his lordship, as many had done before, with something like a feeling of the ludicrous.
Miss Niphet was not much given to laughter, but whenever she looked at Lord Curryfin during breakfast she could not quite suppress a smile which hovered25 on her lips, and which was even the more forced on her by the contrast between his pantomimic disappearance26 and his quiet courtesy and remarkably27 good manners in company. The lines of Dryden—
A man so various, that he seemed to be
Not one, but all mankind's epitome28,
—passed through her mind as she looked at him.
Lord Curryfin noticed the suppressed smile, but did not apprehend29 that it had any relation to himself. He thought some graceful30 facetiousness31 had presented itself to the mind of the young lady, and that she was amusing herself with her own fancy. It was, however, to him another touch of character, that lighted up her statuesque
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