Charles O'Malley, The Irish Dragoon, Volume 1Lever, Charles
General
Charles O'Malley, The Irish Dragoon, Volume 1
Lever, Charles
Peninsular War, 1807-1814 -- Fiction
Now, Fanny had selected another arm of the service. Her hair was fair; her
eyes blue, laughing, languishing,--mischief-loving blue, with long lashes,
and a look in them that was wont to leave its impression rather longer than
you exactly knew of; then, her figure was _petite_, but perfect; her feet
Canova might have copied; and her hand was a study for Titian; her voice,
too, was soft and musical, but full of that _gaiété de coeur_ that never
fails to charm. While her sister’s style was _il penserono_, hers was
_l’allegro_; every imaginable thing, place, or person supplied food for her
mirth, and her sister’s lovers all came in for their share. She hunted
with Smith Barry’s hounds; she yachted with the Cove Club; she coursed,
practised at a mark with a pistol, and played chicken hazard with all
the cavalry,--for, let it be remarked as a physiological fact, Matilda’s
admirers were almost invariably taken from the infantry, while Fanny’s
adorers were as regularly dragoons. Whether the former be the romantic
arm of the service, and the latter be more adapted to dull realities, or
whether the phenomenon had any other explanation, I leave to the curious.
Now, this arrangement, proceeding upon that principle which has wrought
such wonders in Manchester and Sheffield,--the division of labor,--was a
most wise and equitable one, each having her one separate and distinct
field of action, interference was impossible; not but that when, as in the
present instance, cavalry was in the ascendant, Fanny would willingly spare
a dragoon or two to her sister, who likewise would repay the debt when
occasion offered.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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