g out, pointing downwards, the force of the elements raising her
on her tip toes, now touching, now disdaining the earth. Her dress
expanded wide like that of Herbele in her last and best
pirouette--round, round she goes--her white arms are tossed frantically
in the air. Corinne never threw herself into more graceful attitudes.
Now is seen her diminishing ankle--now the rounded symmetry--mustn't go
too high up though--the wind increases--her distance from the edge of
the precipice decreases--she has no breath left to shriek--no power to
fall--threatened to be ravished by the wild and powerful god of the
elements--she is discovered by the Honourable Augustus Bouverie, who has
just finished his soliloquy upon another adjacent hill. He delights in
her danger--before he rushes to her rescue, makes one pause for the
purpose of admiration, and another for the purpose of adjusting his
shirt collar.

_A._ The devil he does!

_B._ To be sure. The hero of a fashionable novel never loses caste.
Whether in a storm, a whirlwind, up to his neck in the foaming ocean, or
tumbling down a precipice, he is still the elegant and correct
Honourable Augustus Bouverie. To punish you for your interruption, I
have a great mind to make him take a pinch of snuff before he starts.
Well--he flies to her assistance--is himself caught in the rushing
vortex, which prevents him from getting nearer to the lady, and, despite
of himself, takes to whirling in the opposite direction. They
approach--they recede--she shrieks without being heard--holds out her
arms for help--she would drop them in despair, but cannot, for they are
twisted over her head by the tremendous force of the element. One moment
they are near to each other, and the next they are separated; at one
instant they are close to the abyss, and the waters below roar in
delight of their anticipated victims, and in the next a favouring change
of the vortex increases their distance from the danger--there they
spin--and there you may leave them, and commence a new chapter.

_A._ But is not all this naturally and physically impossible?

_B._ By no means; there is nothing supernatural in a whirlwind, and the
effect of a whirlwind is to twist everything round. Why should the
heroine and the Honourable Augustus Bouverie not be submitted to the
laws of nature? besides, we are writing a fashionable novel. Wild and
improbable as this whirlwind may appear, it is within the range of
probability; whereas