that chiselling would not do. They were at once formed
and informed by the Deity. It is of no use talking about her luxurious
and night-emulating hair, her lips, and those eyes, that seemed to
contain, in their small compass, a whole sea of melancholy, in which
love was struggling to support a half-drowned joy.

As I turned to converse with her, she looked up to me confidingly. She
appeared, as it were, incessantly to draw me to her with her large black
eyes; they seemed to say to me, "Come nearer to me, that I may
understand thee. Art thou not something distinct from the beings that I
see around me--something that can teach me what I am, and will also give
me something to venerate, to idolise, and to love!" As I continued to
speak to her, her attention grew into a quiet rapture, yet still a
sublime melancholy seemed to hold her feelings in a solemn thraldom.

My name, my rank, and my situation were soon disclosed to the father and
daughter; and the former seeing how entranced we were with each other's
company, like a prudent parent, left us to ourselves. My French was
much purer and more grammatical than hers, hers much more fluent than
mine. Yet, notwithstanding this deficiency on both sides, we understood
each other perfectly, and we had not been above two hours together
alone, before I told her that I loved her for her very ignorance, and
she had confessed to me that she loved me, because--because--the reader
will never guess why--because I was so like the good spirit that walked
gently through the forests and gathered up the fever-mists before they
reached the dwellings of man.

I very naturally asked her if she had seen this being. She said no, but
knew him as well as if she had; for old Jumbila, a negress, had so often
talked to her about him, that her idea of him was as familiar to her as
the presence of her father.

"You have much to unlearn, my sweet one," thought I, "and I shall be but
too happy to be your preceptor."

At sunset, Monsieur Manuel returned, led us into another apartment,
where a not inelegant dinner was served up to us. Knowing the habits of
my countrymen, we sat over some very fine claret, after Josephine had
retired. I took this opportunity to reproach him, in the mildest terms
that I could use, with the dreadful ignorance in which he had suffered a
creature so lovely, and so superior to remain.

His reply was a grimace, a hoisting of his shoulders above his head, an
opening