,' she answered, changing eyes of
eagle for eyes of dove, and then put out the lights. I had half a mind
to offer it, on the spot. May I? That is to say, if the impulse seizes
me I take nobody's advice, and fair Venus certainly is not under my chin
at this moment. As to ill health, great mother Nature has given a house
of iron to this soul of fire. The windows may blaze, or the windows may
be extinguished, but the house stands firm. When you are lightning or
earthquake, you may have something to reproach yourself for; as it is,
be under no alarm. Do not put words in my mouth that I have not uttered.
'And now he yawns,' is what I shall say of you only when I am sure you
have just heard a good thing. You really are the best fellow of your
set that I have come across, and the only one pretending to brains.
Your modesty in estimating your value as a leader of Pandours will be
pleasing to them who like that modesty. Good-bye. This little Emilia is
a marvel of flying moods. Yesterday she went about as if she said,
'I've promised Apollo not to speak till to-morrow.' To-day, she's in a
feverish gabble--or began the day with a burst of it; and now she's soft
and sensible. If you fancy a girl at her age being able to see, that
it's a woman's duty to herself and the world to be artistic--to perfect
the thing of beauty she is meant to be by nature!--and, seeing, too,
that Love is an instrument like any other thing, and that we must play
on it with considerate gentleness, and that tearing at it or dashing it
to earth, making it howl and quiver, is madness, and not love!--I assure
you she begins to see it! She does see it. She is going to wear a wreath
of black briony (preserved and set by Miss Ford, a person cunning in
these matters). She's going to the ball at Penarvon Castle, and will
look--supply your favourite slang word. A little more experience, and
she will have malice. She wants nothing but that to make her consummate.
Malice is the barb of beauty. She's just at present a trifle blunt. She
will knock over, but not transfix. I am anxious to watch the effect
she produces at Penarvon. Poor little woman! I paid a compliment to her
eyes. 'I've got nothing else,' said she. Dine as well as you can while
you are in England. German cookery is an education for the sentiment of
hogs. The play of sour and sweet, and crowning of the whole with fat,
shows a people determined to go down in civilization, and try the
business backwards. Adieu,