Christian fiction; Conduct of life -- Fiction; Didactic fiction; Mate selection -- Fiction
After spending the day at Mrs. Fentham's, I went to sup with my friends
in Cavendish-square. Lady Belfield was impatient for my history of the
dinner. But Sir John said, laughing, "You shall not say a word,
Charles--I can tell how it was as exactly as if I had been there.
Charlotte, who has the best voice, was brought out to sing, but was
placed a little behind, as her person is not quite perfect; Maria, who
is the most picturesque figure, was put _to attitudinize_ at the harp,
arrayed in the costume, and assuming the fascinating graces of Marmion's
Lady Heron:
Fair was her rounded arm, as o'er
The strings her fingers flow.
"Then, Charles, was the moment of peril! then, according to your favorite
Milton's most incongruous image,
You took in sounds that might create a soul
Under the ribs of death.
"For fear, however, that your heart of adamant should hold out against
all these perilous assaults, its vulnerability was tried in other
quarters. The Titian would naturally lead to Livinia's drawings. A
beautiful sketch of the lakes would be produced, with a gentle
intimation, what a sweet place Westmoreland must be to live in! When you
had exhausted all proper raptures on the art and on the artist, it would
be recollected, that as Westmoreland was so near Scotland, you would
naturally be fond of a reel. The reel of course succeeded." Then,
putting himself into an attitude and speaking theatrically, he
continued,
"Then universal Pan
Knit with the Graces and the Hours in dance--
"Oh! no, I forgot universal Pan could not join, but he could admire. Then
all the perfections of all the nymphs burst on you in full blaze. Such a
concentration of attractions you never could resist! You are _but_ a
man, and now, doubtless, a lost man." Here he stopped to finish his
laugh, and I was driven reluctantly to acknowledge that his picture,
though a caricature, was, notwithstanding, a resemblance.
"And so," said Sir John, "you were brought under no power of incantation
by this dangerous visit. You will not be driven, like the tempted
Ithacan, to tie yourself to a mast, or to flee for safety from the
enchantment of these Sirens."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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