The Man in Black: An Historical Novel of the Days of Queen AnneJames, G. P. R. (George Payne Rainsford)
History
The Man in Black: An Historical Novel of the Days of Queen Anne
James, G. P. R. (George Payne Rainsford)
Great Britain -- History -- Anne, 1702-1714 -- Fiction
She exerted all her charms, and could Waller but have seen her we
should have had such an account of the artillery of her eyes, the
insidious attack of her smile, and the whole host of powerful
adversaries brought to bear against the object of her assault in her
gracefully moving form and heaving bosom, that Saccharissa would have
melted away like a wet lump of sugar in the comparison.
Then again when she had produced an effect, and saw clear and
distinctly that he thought her lovely, and very charming too, she
seemed to fall into a pleasant sort of languid melancholy, which was
even more charming still. The brook was bubbling and murmuring at
their feet, dashing clear and bright over its stony bed, and changing
the brown rock, the water weed, or the leaf beneath, into gems by the
magic of its own brightness. The boughs were waving over head, covered
with many-colored foliage, and the sun, glancing through, not only
enriched the tints above, but checkered the mossy path along which
they wandered like a chess-board of brown and gold. Some of the late
autumn birds uttered their short sweet songs from the copse hard by,
and the musical wind came sighing up from the valley, as if nature had
furnished Eolus with a harp. It was in short quite a scene, and a
moment for a widow to make love to a young man. They were silent for
some little time, and then Mrs. Hazleton said, with her soft, sweet,
round voice, "Is not all this very charming, Mr. Marlow?"
Her tone was quite a sad one, but not with that sort of pleasant
sadness which often mingles with our happiest moments, giving them
even a higher zest, like the flattened notes when a fine piece of
music passes gently from the major into the minor key, but really sad,
profoundly sad.
"Very charming, indeed," replied her young companion, looking round to
her face with some surprise.
"And what am I to do without it, when you turn me out of my house!"
said the lady, answering his glance with a melancholy smile.
"Turn you out of your house!" exclaimed Mr. Marlow; "I hope you do not
suppose, my dear madam, that I could dream of such a thing. Oh, no! I
would not for the world deprive such a scene of its brightest
ornament. Some arrangement can be easily effected, even if my claim
should prove satisfactory to those you appoint to investigate it, by
which the neighborhood will not be deprived of the happiness of your
presence."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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