litting,
when one day Lucien, and two of his student friends, made their
appearance amongst us. How quickly her mood changed; the listless,
yawning, dissatisfied manner disappeared, and we heard her the first
night of their arrival delighting them, as she had us, with her
fascinating ecstasies over rural enjoyments. She sentimentalized,
flirted, romped, laughed, dressed in a picturesque manner, and "was
every thing by turns, but nothing long," evidently bent upon bringing
to her feet the three gentlemen. Lucien's friends soon struck their
flags, and were her humble cavaliers--but a right tyrannical mistress
she proved to them, making them scowl, and say sharp things to each
other in a most ferocious manner, very amusing to us; but Lucien was
impregnable. She played off all her arts in vain, he seemed
unconscious, and devoted himself entirely to Effie. At first she was
so occupied with securing the two other prizes she overlooked his
delinquency, but when certain of them, she was piqued into
accomplishing a conquest of him likewise. I did not think she would be
successful, and amused myself by quietly watching her manoeuvres.

One bright moonlight evening the gentlemen rowed us up the
mill-stream, and as we returned we landed at our favorite oak. The
waters, swelled by recent rains, came dashing and tumbling along in
mimic billows; the moon beamed down a heavenly radiance, and as the
little wavelets broke against the shore, they glittered like molten
silver, covering the wild blossoms with dazzling fairy gems. Kate's
two lovers were talking and walking with Mrs. Morris and Effie along
the shore. Lucien, Kate, and I, remained on a little bank that rose
abruptly from the water. She did, indeed, look most bewitchingly
beautiful; her soft, white dress, bound at the waist by a flowing
ribbon, floated in graceful folds around her; her lovely neck,
shoulders and arms, were quite uncovered, and her rich, dark hair fell
in loose, long curls, making picturesque shadows in the moonlight. She
could act the inspired enthusiast to perfection; and what our Effie
really was, she could affect most admirably. She seemed unconscious of
our presence; indeed, I do not think she thought I was near her, and,
as if involuntarily, she burst out into one of her affected
rhapsodies, her eyes beamed brightly, and she expressed her feelings
most rapturously, concluding with repeating, in low, earnest, half
trembling tones, some lines of Lucien's sh