---oOo---
"Some live in airy fantasies,
And in the clouds do move,
And some do burn with inward flames--
But few know how to love."
ANON. BALLAD
CHAPTER I.
ON one of those clear, cold days of December,
which so frequently occur in our climate, two very
young women were walking on the fashionable
promenade of New-York. In the person of the elder
of these females there was exhibited nothing more
than the usual indications of youth and health; but
there were a delicacy and an expression of
exquisite feeling in the countenance of her
companion, that caused many a plodding or idle
passenger to turn and renew the gaze, which had
been attracted by so lovely a person. Her figure
was light, and possessed rather a character of
aerial grace, than the usual rounded lines of earthly
beauty; and her face was beaming more with the
sentiments of the soul within, than with the
ordinary charms of complexion and features. It was
precisely that kind of youthful loveliness that a
childless husband would pause to contemplate as
the reality of the visions which his thoughts had
often portrayed, and which his nature coveted as
the only treasure wanting to complete the sum of
his earthly bliss. It truly looked a being to be loved
without the usual alloy of our passions; and there
was a modest ingenuousness which shone in her
air, that gently impelled the hearts of others to
regard its possessor with a species of holy
affection.
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