Lady Sybil's Choice: A Tale of the CrusadesHolt, Emily Sarah
History
Lady Sybil's Choice: A Tale of the Crusades
Holt, Emily Sarah
Crusades -- Fiction; Historical fiction
_*A LITTLE CLOUD OUT OF THE SEA*_*.*
"Coming events cast their shadows before."
—CAMPBELL.
It is Monday night, and I am,—Oh, so tired!
The three grand weddings are over. Very beautiful sights they were; and
very pleasant the feasts and the dances; but all is done now, and if
Messire Renaud feels any doubt to-night about his body being himself, I
have none about mine.
Eschine made a capital bride, in the sense in which a man would use the
words. That is, she looked very nice, and she stood like a statue. I
do not believe she had an idea in her head beyond these: that she was
going to be married, that it was a very delightful thing, and that she
must look well and behave becomingly.
Is that the sort of woman that men like? It is the sort that some men
seem to think all women are.
But Amaury! If ever I did see a creature more absurd than he, I do not
know who it was. He fidgetted over Eschine’s bridal dress precisely as
if he had been her milliner. At the very last minute, the garland had
to be altered because it did not suit him.
Most charming of all the weddings was Guy’s. Dear Lady Sybil was so
beautiful, and behaved so perfectly, as I should judge of a bride’s
behaviour,—a little soft moisture dimming her dark eyes, and a little
gentle tremulousness in her sweet lips. Her dress was simply
enchanting,—soft and white.
Perhaps Lady Isabel made the most splendid-looking bride of the three;
for her dress was gorgeous, and while Lady Sybil’s style of beauty is by
far the more artistic and poetical, Lady Isabel’s is certainly the more
showy.
So far as I could judge, the three brides regarded their bridegrooms
with very different eyes. To Eschine, he was an accident of the rite; a
portion of the ceremony which it would spoil the show to leave out. To
Lady Isabel, he was a new horse, just mounted, interesting to try, and a
pleasant triumph to subdue. But to Lady Sybil, he was the sun and
centre of all, and every thing deserved attention just in proportion as
it concerned him.
I almost hope that Eschine does not love Amaury, for I feel sure she
will be very unhappy if she do. As to Messire Homfroy de Tours, I do not
think Lady Isabel will find him a pleasant charger. He is any thing but
spirited, and seems to me to have a little of the mule about him—a
creature who would be given at times to taking the bit in his teeth, and
absolutely refusing to go a yard further.
And now it is all over,—the pageants, and the feasts, and the dancing.
And I cannot tell why I am sad.
How is it, or why is it, that after one has enjoyed any thing very much,
one always does feel sad?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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