They
are beneficent and healthful for the straggling herbage upon the surface
of the mountain, but they do not reach or temper the inner fires that
are rolling their billows of flame beneath!
You drop hints from time to time, to those with whom you are most
familiar, of some prospective change of condition. There is a new and
cheerful interest in the building-plans of your neighbors,--a new and
cheerful study of the principles of domestic architecture,--in which
very elegant boudoirs, adorned with harps, hold prominent place; and
libraries with gilt-bound books, very rich in lyrical and dramatic
poetry; fine views from bay-windows; graceful pots of flowers;
sleek-looking Italian greyhounds; cheerful sunlight; musical goldfinches
chattering on the wall; superb pictures of princesses in peasant
dresses; soft Axminster carpets; easy-acting bell-pulls; gigantic
candelabrums; porcelain vases of classic shape; neat waiters in white
aprons; luxurious lounges; and, to crown them all with the very height
of your pride,--the elegant Laura, the mistress, and the guardian of
your soul, moving amid the scene like a new Duchess of Valliere!
You catch chance sights here and there of the blue-eyed Madge: you see
her in her mother's household, the earnest and devoted daughter,--gliding
gracefully about her mother's cottage, the very type of gentleness and of
duty.
Pages:
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182