so slight it was--and
gave to his profile a bold beauty, to which his bashful, breathless air
was a flattering charm. An arrow drawn to the head, capable of flying
fast and far with her! He leaned a little forward, drinking her in
with all his eyes, and young Love has a thousand. Then truly the System
triumphed, just ere it was to fall; and could Sir Austin have been
content to draw the arrow to the head, and let it fly, when it would
fly, he might have pointed to his son again, and said to the world,
"Match him!" Such keen bliss as the youth had in the sight of her, an
innocent youth alone has powers of soul in him to experience.

"O Women!" says The Pilgrim's Scrip, in one of its solitary outbursts,
"Women, who like, and will have for hero, a rake! how soon are you not
to learn that you have taken bankrupts to your bosoms, and that the
putrescent gold that attracted you is the slime of the Lake of Sin!"

If these two were Ferdinand and Miranda, Sir Austin was not Prospero,
and was not present, or their fates might have been different.

So they stood a moment, changing eyes, and then Miranda spoke, and they
came down to earth, feeling no less in heaven.

She spoke to thank him for his aid. She used quite common simple words;
and used them, no doubt, to express a common simple meaning: but to him
she was uttering magic, casting spells, and the effect they had on him
was manifested in the incoherence of his replies, which were too foolish
to be chronicled.

The couple were again mute. Suddenly Miranda, with an exclamation of
anguish, and innumerable lights and shadows playing over her lovely
face, clapped her hands, crying aloud, "My book! my book!" and ran to
the bank.

Prince Ferdinand was at her side. "What have you lost?" he said.

"My book!" she answered, her delicious curls swinging across her
shoulders to the stream. Then turning to him, "Oh, no, no! let me
entreat you not to," she said; "I do not so very much mind losing it."
And in her eagerness to restrain him she unconsciously laid her gentle
hand upon his arm, and took the force of motion out of him.

"Indeed, I do not really care for the silly book," she continued,
withdrawing her hand quickly, and reddening. "Pray, do not!"

The young gentleman had kicked off his shoes. No sooner was the spell
of contact broken than he jumped in. The water was still troubled and
discoloured by his introductory adventure, and, though he ducked his
head with the sp