Protocoli, looking as full of fate as if the French were
again on the Danube; Macaroni, as full of himself as if no other being
were engrossing universal attention. The Premier appears far more
anxious than he does at Council, and the Duke of Burlington arranges his
fanlike screen with an agitation which, for a moment, makes him forget
his unrivalled nonchalance. Even Lady Bloomerly is in suspense, and
even Charles Annesley's heart beats. But ah! (or rather, bah!) the
enthusiasm of Lady de Courcy! Even the young Guardsman, who paid her
Ladyship for her ivory franks by his idle presence, even he must have
felt, callous as those young Guardsmen are.
Will that bore of a tenor ever finish that provoking aria, that we have
heard so often? How drawlingly he drags on his dull, deafening--
_Eccola!_
Have you seen the primal dew ere the sun has lipped the pearl? Have you
seen a summer fly, with tinted wings of shifting light, glance in the
liquid noontide air? Have you marked a shooting star, or watched a young
gazelle at play? Then you have seen nothing fresher, nothing brighter,
nothing wilder, nothing lighter, than the girl who stands before you!
She was infinitely small, fair, and bright.
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