n, by previous arrangement, our own party collected in the
library dressed for the evening. There stood Col. Donaldson in the
uniform of a continental major, gallantly attending a lady whose fine
dark eyes and sweet smile revealed Mrs. Seagrove, notwithstanding the
crimped and powdered hair, patched face, hoop, furbelows, and
farthingale, which would have carried us back to the days of Queen Anne.
Mrs. Dudley, in similar costume, was attended by Philip Donaldson, who
looked a perfect gentleman of the Sir Charles Grandison style in his
full dress, with bag-wig and sword. Arthur Donaldson, in the graceful
and becoming costume of the gallant Hotspur, was seated with his Kate by
his side, and if Kate Percy looked but half as lovely in her bridal
array as did her present representative, she was well worthy a hero's
homage. But in the background, evidently shrinking from observation,
stood a figure more interesting to me than all these--it was our "sweet
Annie" as Zuleika--our Bride, _not_ of Abydos--leaning on the arm of a
Selim habited in a costume as correct and as magnificent as her own, yet
who could scarcely be said to _look_ the character well; the open brow
of Mr. Arlington, where lofty and serene thought seemed to have fixed
its throne, and his eyes bright with present enjoyment and future hope,
bearing little resemblance to our imaginations of the wronged and
desperate Selim, whose very joy seemed but a lightning flash, lending
intenser darkness to the night of his despair. I was the last to enter
the room, and as I approached Mr. Arlington, he presented me with a very
beautiful bouquet. I found afterwards that he had made the same graceful
offering to each of the ladies at the Manor, having received them from
the city, to which he had sent for his Greek dress and Philip's wig. Put
up in the ingenious cases now used for this purpose, the flowers had
come looking as freshly as though they had that moment been plucked. The
bouquet appropriated to Annie differed from all the others. It was
composed of white camelias, moss-rose buds, and violets. As I was
admiring it, Annie pointed to one of the rose-buds as being eminently
lovely in its formation and beautiful in its delicate shading. It was
beautiful, but my attention was more attracted by the sparkling of a
diamond ring I had never before seen upon her finger. The diamond was
unusually large, the antique setting tasteful. With an inconsideration
of which I flatter myse