Great Britain -- History -- Civil War, 1642-1649 -- Fiction
It was some time after Dorothy had twice in one day met him darkling,
before she saw him in the light, and was able to peruse his countenance,
which she did carefully, with the mingled instinct and insight of
curious and thoughtful girlhood. He had come home from a journey,
changed his clothes, and had some food; and now he appeared in his
wife's parlour--to sun himself a little, he said. When he entered,
Dorothy, who was seated at her mistress's embroidery frame, while she
was herself busy mending some Flanders lace, rose to leave the room. But
he prayed her to be seated, saying gayly,
'I would have you see, cousin, that I am no beast of prey that loves the
darkness. I can endure the daylight. Come, my lady, have you nothing to
amuse your soldier with? No good news to tell him? How is my little
Molly?'
During the conjugal talk that followed, his cousin had good opportunity
of making her observations. First she saw a fair, well-proportioned
forehead, with eyes whose remarkable clearness looked as if it owed
itself to the mingling of manly confidence with feminine trustfulness.
They were dark, not very large, but rather prominent, and full of light.
His nose was a little aquiline, and perfectly formed. A soft obedient
moustache, brushed thoroughly aside, revealed right generous lips, about
which hovered a certain sweetness ever ready to break into the blossom
of a smile. That and a small tuft below was all the hair he wore upon
his face. Rare conjunction, the whole of the countenance was remarkable
both for symmetry and expression--the latter mainly a bright
intelligence; and if, strangely enough, the predominant sweetness and
delicacy at first suggested genius unsupported by practical faculty,
there was a plentifulness and strength in the chin which helped to
correct the suggestion, and with the brightness and prominence of the
eyes and the radiance of the whole, to give a brave, almost bold look to
a face which could hardly fail to remind those who knew them of the
lovely verses of Matthew Raydon, describing that of sir Philip Sidney:
A sweet attractive kinde of grace,
A full assurance given by lookes,
Continuall comfort in a face,
The lineaments of Gospell-bookes;
I trowe that countenance cannot lie
Whose thoughts are legible in the eie.
Notwithstanding the disadvantages of the fashion, in the mechanical
pursuits to which he had hitherto devoted his life, he wore, like
Milton's Adam, his wavy hair down to his shoulders. In his youth, it had
been thick and curling; now it was thinner and straighter, yet curled
where it lay. His hands were small, with the taper fingers that indicate
the artist, while his thumb was that of the artizan, square at the tip,
with the first joint curved a good deal back. That they were hard and
something discoloured was not for Dorothy to wonder at, when she
remembered what she had both heard and seen of his occupations.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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