A Whim, and Its Consequences: Collection of British Authors Vol. CXIVJames, G. P. R. (George Payne Rainsford)
General
A Whim, and Its Consequences: Collection of British Authors Vol. CXIV
James, G. P. R. (George Payne Rainsford)
Fiction
Both Emily and Rose Tracy were very glad when the peer was gone, for
his fluttering from one to the other (though he annoyed Emily most)
had much the same effect as having a bee or large fly in the room; but
there was another person in the neighbourhood who rejoiced still more,
and that was Horace Fleming. He had dined twice at Mr. Tracy's while
the party of visitors were there, and he did not at all approve of
Lord Overton's attentions to Emily. Chandos Winslow was not sorry, for
although he had not such definite cause for uneasiness as Fleming, yet
that little god of love, whom we hear so much of, and so seldom see,
is not only a metaphysical god, but a very irritable god too. The
sight of Rose Tracy had always been pleasant to him during the whole
time he had been in Mr. Tracy's service. Her beautiful little ancle
and tiny foot, as she walked along the paths, had to his fancy the
power of calling up flowers as it passed. Her smile had seemed to him
to give back summer to the wintry day; the light of her eyes to
prolong the sunshine, and make the twilight bright. In the morning she
was his Aurora, in the evening his Hesperus; and in a word, in the
space of six weeks and a day, Chandos Winslow had fallen very much in
love. But it must be remarked, that the odd day mentioned, was far
detached from the six weeks, dating nearly one year before. It had
been an epocha which he had always remembered however--one of the
green spots in the past. A lovely and intelligent girl, fresh,
and unspoiled by the great corruptor of taste, feeling, and
mind--fashionable society--had been cast upon his care and attention
for several hours, in a crowd which prevented her from finding her own
party at a fête. They had danced together more than was prudent and
conventional, because they did not well know what else to do; and the
little embarrassment of the moment had only excited for her an
additional interest over and above that created by youth, beauty,
grace, and innocence. At the end of the evening, she had passed from
his sight like a shooting star, as he thought, for ever. But he
remembered the bright meteor, and its rays sometimes even had visited
him in sleep. Thus that day had as much to do with the love of the
case as the far-detached six weeks; though they had served to ripen,
and perfect, and mature a passion of which but one solitary seed had
been sown before.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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