hing she did that reminded the
beholder of that exquisitely beautiful line in Ariosto:

"She walked--she spoke--she sang--and heaven was there."

This description may not be according to certain received axioms
concerning female beauty; but I never could bear to contemplate a fair
face and graceful form as painters do, who measure woman's loveliness by
certain fixed and arbitrary rules, as surveyors of lumber do boards.
Nothing makes me more fidgetty than to hear a man compare every
beautiful face he sees with a certain standard, even if that standard is
the Venus de Medicis herself; this face is not good, for it is not
exactly oval; that nose is altogether wrong, for it is not Grecian; a
chin is not this, or a mouth is not that, &c. Portrait painters are much
addicted to this kind of criticism; and whenever I find myself in
company with one of these two-foot-rule critics, I make my escape from
him as I would from a plague hospital.

At the time of our narrative, Julia's father had been absent somewhat
more than two years. He had sent for her to join him at Valparaiso, a
summons that she prepared to obey with no small trepidation. "The course
of true love," which is somewhat notorious for "never running smooth,"
seemed at this moment about to encounter a "head sea." Her absence from
England she knew must be a long one, perhaps an eternal one; the
separation from Allerton weighed much heavier upon her spirits than she
was willing to admit, and altogether her prospects of happiness seemed
darkened for ever.

The same conveyance that brought Julia's letters also brought
instructions to the other partners of the house to fit out two vessels
for the Pacific, one of which was to be entrusted to the command of
Captain Allerton; but Mr. Effingham omitted to designate which of the
two was to be honored by being for some months the floating home of his
fair daughter; either intending it should be left to her option, or
taking it for granted that his partner, well aware of the intimacy of
Allerton's standing in her father's family, would of course place Julia
on board the ship commanded by George. But that partner was a crafty old
fox, who had long since seen the growing affection of the two young
people, and, with all that eagerness to destroy happiness, that they are
past enjoying, that characterizes the majority of old people, decided
that Miss Julia should, for a time, entrust her person and fortunes to
the fatherly ca