At first we thought that it should have been Hubert, and not Mabel, who saw "the fresh light flush out of her rosy shoulders"--particularly if the blush extended, as no doubt it did, to the lady's back: but on further consideration we saw that we were wrong; for Sir Hubert could not have perceived "her sweet blood _hush_ about her"--this _hushing_ of the blood about one being, as all great blushers know, a fact discernible only by the person more immediately concerned in the blush. The propriety, therefore, of making Mabel perceive the blush, rather than Sir Hubert, is undeniable. The writer must either have left out the _hushing_ altogether, which would have been a great blemish in the picture, or he must have written as he has done. How profoundly versed in the physiology of blushing he must be! We are doubtful, however, whether the costume of the picture is altogether appropriate; for we question very much whether the Italian ladies of the thirteenth, or any other century, were in the habit of paying forenoon visits in low-necked gowns; and whether Mabel could have walked all the way from her castle to Sir Hubert's cottage, in an attire which revealed so many of her charms, without attracting the general attention of the neighbourhood. She had no time, be it observed, to divest herself of shawl or mantilla in order to show how _sumptuously_ she could blush--for her salutation is made to Sir Hubert, and its roseate consequences ensue the very first moment she sees him. But let that pass. We should have been very sorry if such a "splendiferous" phenomenon had been obscured by envious boa or pelisse, or lost to the proprieties of costume. The Lady then "Said that she was wearied With her walk--would stay to dine, And name her wishes after." Meanwhile the poet asks-- "How was it with Sir Hubert? --Beggarly language! _I could burst_ For impotence of effort: Those who made thee were accurst! _Dumb men were gods were all dumb_. But go on, and do thy worst!-- "His life-blood stopp'd to listen-- Her _delivering_ lips dealt sound-- Oh! _hungrily_ he listen'd, But the meaning meant was drown'd; For, to him, her voice and presence Meaning held far more profound. "He gave his soul to feasting, And his sense, (which is the soul More thoroughly incarnate,) Backward standing, to control His object, as a painter Views a picture in the whole. "She stood, her eyes cast downwards, And, upon them, dropp'd halfway, Lids, sweeter than the bosom Of an unburst lily, lay, With black abundant lashes, To keep out the upper day. "_A breath from out her shoulders Made the air cool_, and the ground Was greener in their shadow; All her dark locks _loll'd_, unbound, About them, heavily lifted By the breeze that struggled round.