The lover relates his tale to his friend, the author. He begins by entreating him to "Bear with me, in case Tears come. _I feel them coming by the smarting in my face_." And then he proceeds to introduce us to this Lilian, the immaculate mistress of his soul-- "She could see me coming to her with the vision of the hawk; Always hasten'd on to meet me, _heavy passion in her walk;_ Low tones to me grew lower, sweetening so her honey talk, "That it fill'd up all my hearing, drown'd the _voices of the birds_, The _voices of the breezes_, and the _voices of the herds_-- For to me the lowest ever were the loudest of her words." "Heavy passion in her walk!"--what a delicate and delectable young lady she must have been! Then, as to the fact so harmoniously expressed, of her accents drowning "the voices of the birds, the voices of the breezes, and the voices of the herds," we may remark, that the first and second never require to be drowned at all, being nearly inaudible at any rate, even during the most indifferent conversation--so that there was nothing very remarkable in their being extinguished by the plaintiveness of the lady's tones; while, with regard to the voices of the herds, if she succeeded in drowning these--the cattle being near at hand, and lowing lustily--she must indeed have roared to her lover "like any nightingale." The description of her is thus continued-- "On her face, then and for ever, was the seriousness within. Her sweetest smiles (and sweeter did a lover never win) _Ere half-done grew so absent, that they made her fair cheek thin._ "On her face, then and for ever, thoughts unworded used to live; So that when she whisper'd to me, 'Better joy earth cannot give'-- Her lips, though shut, continued, 'But earth's joy is fugitive.' "For there a _nameless something_, though suppress'd, still spread around; The same was on her eyelids, if she look'd towards the ground; When she spoke, you _knew directly_ that the same was in the sound;" By and by, a young gentleman, of the name of Winton, comes to visit Lilian and her father:-- "A formerly-loved companion--he was fresh from sprightly France, And with many volumes laden, essay, poem, and romance." He, and his pursuits after leaving school, are thus elegantly described:-- "When free, all healthy study was put by, that he might rush To his favourite books, French chiefly, that his blood might boil and gush Over scenes which set his visage glowing crimson--_not a blush_." This gentleman and Lilian's lover strike up a strong friendship for one another, and the latter makes Winton his confidant. As yet no suspicions arise to break the blind sleep of the infatuated dreamer.