angrily demanded that it should
be delivered up, it had flown to the skies and become a meteor there.
(See BERENICE.)

_Belinda_, daughter of Mr. Blandford, in love with Beverley the
brother of Clarissa. Her father promised sir William Bellmont that
she should marry his son George, but George was already engaged
to Clarissa. Belinda was very handsome, very independent, most
irreproachable, and devotedly attached to Beverley. When he hinted
suspicions of infidelity, she was too proud to deny their truth, but
her pure and ardent love instantly rebuked her for giving her lover
causeless pain.--A. Murphy, _All in the Wrong_ (1761).

_Belin'da_, the heroine of Miss Edgeworth's novel of the same name.
The object of the tale is to make the reader _feel_ what is good, and
pursue it (1803).

_Belin'da_, a lodging-house servant-girl, very poor, very dirty,
very kind-hearted, and shrewd in observation. She married, and Mr.
Middlewick the butter-man set her husband up in business in the butter
line.--H. J. Byron, _Our Boys_ (1875).

BELINE (2 _syl_.), second wife of Argan the _malade imaginaire_, and
step-mother of Angelique, whom she hates. Beline pretends to love
Argan devotedly, humors him in all his whims, calls him "mon fils,"
and makes him believe that if he were to die it would be the death of
her. Toinette induces Argan to put these specious protestations to the
test by pretending to be dead. He does so, and when Beline enters the
room, instead of deploring her loss, she cries in ecstasy:

"Le ciel en soit loue! Me voila delivree d'un pesant fardeau!... de
quoi servait-il sur la terre? Un homme incommode a tout le monde,
malpropre, degoutant ... mouchant, toussant, crachant toujours, sans
esprit, ennuyeux, de manvaise humeur, fatiguant sans cesse les gens,
et grondant jour et nuit servantes et valets."--(iii. 18).

She then proceeds to ransack the room for bonds, leases, and money;
but Argan starts up and tells her she has taught him one useful lesson
for life at any rate.--Moliere, _Le Malade Imaginaire_ (1673).

BELISA'RIUS, the greatest of Justinian's generals. Being accused of
treason, he was deprived of all his property, and his eyes were put
out. In this state he retired to Constantinople, where he lived by
begging. The story says he fastened a label to his hat, containing
these words, "_Give an obolus to poor old Belisarius_." Marmontel has
written a tale called _Belisaire_, which has helped to perpetuate
t