John Stevens' Courtship: A Story of the Echo Canyon War — John Shaqi
John Stevens' Courtship: A Story of the Echo Canyon WarGates, Susa Young
General
John Stevens' Courtship: A Story of the Echo Canyon War
Gates, Susa Young
Latter Day Saints -- Fiction; Utah Expedition (1857-1858) -- Fiction
The captain looked with genuine yet well-guarded interest into the
faces of the two young "Mormon" girls, almost the first he had met.
His interest grew into admiration, as he noted the lovely brown eyes,
and the curling tresses of glossy brown hair floating around the head
of sweet, fascinating Ellen Tyler. Her lips were curved and rosy with
health and beauty, and her low brow and delicately-traced eyebrows were
like those of a Grecian goddess. Her sparkling charm was not alone in
the regular and beautiful features, nor in the well-molded yet dainty
form; but in and through every glance, every word, there sparkled an
indefinable attraction which no one could resist. Women loved her,
men adored her. And this stranger instantly felt the force of her
loveliness. He was a man of the world, too prudent to manifest much
interest in women of this peculiar and just now excited people, but he
shot a glance of daring admiration into the brown depths of Ellen's
eyes, which she, as daringly accepted.
Diantha was a little behind the others, and as she came forward for
an introduction, the captain mentally exclaimed: "By Jove! where do
they get such beauty from?" For the elegant dignity of the girl's
carriage was fully warranted by the superb outlines of her face and
form. Her head was crowned with its soft weight of yellow hair, braid
over braid of its golden glory breaking into tiny waves on her brow;
the neck curved gradually into the loveliest shoulders and bust he had
ever beheld; and these lines melted into so round and pliant a waist
that he felt sure she could well pose in marble for a perfect Hebe.
Her face was not so beautiful as that of the brown-eyed maiden, but it
was so engaging in its details of coral lips, parting over teeth like
white shells, richest pink cheeks and a full, strong, pink chin, that
no one could withhold the meed of admiration which this magnificent
girl demanded. She had such a cool, superior way of looking at people,
with steady eyes and even eyelids, that even this worldly wise captain
wondered if the girl were a perfect woman of the world, supremely
conscious of her own charms, or was she simply utterly ignorant and
therefore unconscious of the impression she made upon every one who saw
her.
Both girls were dressed in white; but Ellen's dress fluttered and
broke into endless intricacies of bows, ends, ribbons, flounces and
rosettes, while Dian's hung in long, simple, classic folds from the
short, baby waist to the toe of the tiny boots. Clearly, thought the
captain, as his artistic eye noted these details, some inherent art has
taught these two girls the secret of their own beauty and how best to
emphasize it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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