f has
nothing disagreeable. It is formed of wax, and has a mournful
expression which is quite attractive, at least when its owner
sits still; but when she moves or speaks, the dead look of the
mask has an indescribably unpleasant effect. Several persons have
indirectly questioned the Marchese on this subject, but he evades
or turns off their enquiries with all the tact of a consummate
man of the world. Of course it would be indelicate, if not
unfeeling, to ask her about it. Meantime the public amuses itself
with all sorts of absurd suppositions. First it is a vow; then
she has got a pig's face; then her waiting-maid had said that she
had once caught her unmasked, and that her face was covered with
feathers and had a beak in the middle of it. Then, again, it is a
stratagem, to try the man whom she shall marry, and to see if he
will love her for something besides her appearance, and on her
wedding-day she will take off the mask and disclose features of
perfect beauty. All this is of course mere gossip; for nobody
knows any thing about these Italians, except that the Marchese is
enormously rich, and that his daughter, in spite of her mask, is
the most amiable and fascinating of women. Amongst other
absurdities, a report was spread that the marquis was no other
than the celebrated St Germains, who, as is well known, was
himself no other than the Wandering Jew. It is ridiculous to hear
the extraordinary things they tell of him. Only the other day it
was asserted that he had been met in a distant country, where he
passed under another name, and was remarkable for his constant
and almost suspicious success in gambling. I should be very
curious to trace all these reports to their source. Their
inventors can at least have no lack of imagination. The fact is,
that there is unquestionably something strange and mysterious
about the old man--but what does it amount to after all? He is an
old Italian marquis, his foreign manners and appearance, and
imposing title, work upon the imagination of us northerns, and at
once make us suspect an adventurer in this worthy old nobleman.
The mere presence of Natalie (that is his daughter's name) is
sufficient to refute such a suspicion. She is the incarnation of
all that is pure and beautiful; and I confess to you, my f