Edmund's gaze was so continued, that Mrs. Montgomery asked him if Julia was much more grown than he expected. "Yes, ma'am--oh, no!" answered Edmund. "That is, I always thought--that Julia--but--but"---- He coloured and stammered. "I always thought, myself, she would be tall," said Mrs. Montgomery; "but you think her more grown than you could have supposed, perhaps?" "Yes--ma'am--yes--I do," he replied, glad to be spared the task of translating himself. Dinner was at this moment announced; and, the next, Edmund heard the words:--"Lady Julia L., allow me----" pronounced by Lord Morven, who, at the same time, presented his arm to Julia. She accepted it, and the couple fell into the rear of the battalion, marching towards the dining-room. Edmund felt an odd sort of sensation, which he did not wait to define, but, offering his arm to Frances, who was busy, declaring that she wanted but half an inch of Julia's height; he followed with her, and, on taking his seat at the table, between her ladyship and Lady Susan Morven, found himself placed opposite to Julia and Lord Morven. CHAPTER XXXIII. "Thou, fairer than the spirit of the hills, And blooming as the bow of the shower, With thy soft hair, floating round thy beauty Thus, like the bright curling mist of Cona, Hast thou no welcome for Fingall?" The likeness between the twins had nearly disappeared. The uncommon colour of the hair, indeed, blended of flaxen and light brown, with the luxuriance of its growth, and the peculiar golden lustre received by the curls when the light shone on them, was still the same in both sisters. The fairness of the skin, too, was much the same; but the rest will require separate portraits. Frances' colour was not quite so brilliant as her sister's; yet it was, at once, lively and delicate, and came and went, in a slight degree, at every movement. Her blue eyes sparkled, almost continually, with unmixed delight. Her mouth was small, pretty, and peculiarly flexible, every moment escaping from any attempt at gravity, into smiles and laughs of various degrees, displaying the white, small, regular, pearly teeth. Her figure was slight and light, to a sylph-like degree, and so frequently seen in the active pursuit of some medium of pleasure, or means of mirth, that had her picture been taken in any attitude that did not indicate passing, that did not keep the beholder in constant dread of its disappearance, it would not have been like.