rything around me started
into poetry. I seemed to be under the direction of fairy spirits: all
my wants were cared for as if by invisible hands. It appeared to me
that I had but to wish, and gratification followed before the wish was
half formed. I was passive, and carried away in a trance of happiness.
I was beset with illusion; and so intense were my feelings of rapture,
mingled with doubt, and my blissful distraction so great, that it was
late in the day before I noticed the dress I had on. The light and
broad-brimmed planter's hat, the snowy white jean jacket and trousers,
and the infinitely fine linen shirt, with its elaborately laced front,
had all been donned without my noticing the change from my usual
apparel. It was a dress, from its purity and its elegance, worthy of a
bridegroom. I learnt afterwards that Josephine's old negress-nurse had,
with many and powerful incantations--at least, as powerful as
incantations always are--buried under six feet of earth every article of
clothing in which I had first entered the mansion.

Well, there we were, a very pretty version of Paul and Virginia--not
perhaps quite so innocent, but infinitely more happy, roving hand in
hand through orange bowers and aromatic shades. Love is sweet, and a
first love very, very delightful; but, when we are not only loved, but
almost worshipped, that, that is the incense that warms the heart and
intoxicates the brain. Wherever I turned, I found greeting and smiles,
and respectful observance hovered along my path. The household adored
their young mistress and me through her.

Old Manuel seemed serenely happy. He encouraged us to be alone with
each other. I could write volumes upon the little incidents, and
interesting ones too, of this singular honeymoon. I observed no more
bursts of passion in Josephine; her soul had folded its wings upon my
bosom, and there dreamed itself away in a tender and loving melancholy.
How I now smile, and perhaps could weep, when I call to mind all her
little artifices of love to prevent my ever casting my eyes upon the
hated ship! As I have related before, our little squadron at anchor in
this secluded bay departed one by one, leaving only the _Eos_, with her
sorely-wounded captain; yet, though I saw them not, I knew, by
Josephine's triumphant looks, when a vessel had sailed. All the
_jalousies_ in front of the house were nailed up, so that, if by chance
I wandered into one of the rooms in that q