id the light of the
flowers, overlooking the whole with a searching glance, then vanishing,
and re-appearing a moment afterwards higher up to pass into her chamber.

'She is the loveliest and most enchanting creature I ever saw,' cried
Anderson; 'our friend is indeed the happiest of men.'

'Even her paleness,' said the officer, taking up the word, 'heightens
her beauty. Her brown eyes sparkle only more intensely above those white
cheeks, and beneath those dark locks; and the singular, almost burning,
redness of her lips gives a truly magical appearance to her face.'

'The air of silent melancholy that surrounds her,' said Anderson, 'sheds
a lofty majesty over her whole form.'

The bridegroom joined them, and inquired after Roderick. They had all
missed him some time since, and could not conceive where he could be
tarrying; and they all set out in search of him. 'He is below in the
hall,' said at length a young man whom they happened to ask, 'in the
midst of the coachmen, footmen, and grooms, showing off tricks at cards,
which they cannot grow tired of staring at.' They went in, and
interrupted the noisy admiration of the servants, without, however,
disturbing Roderick, who quietly pursued his conjuring exhibition. When
he had finished, he walked with the others into the garden, and said, 'I
do it only to strengthen the fellows in their faith: for these puzzles
give a hard blow to their groomships' free-thinking inclinations, and
help to make them true believers.'

'I see,' said the bridegroom, 'my all-sufficing friend, among his other
talents, does not think that of a mountebank beneath his cultivation.'

'We live in a strange time,' replied the other. 'Who knows whether
mountebanks may not come to rule the roost in their turn. One ought to
despise nothing nowadays: the veriest straw of talent may be that which
is to break the camel's back.'

When the two friends found themselves alone, Emilius again turned down
the dark avenue, and said, 'Why am I in such a gloomy mood on this the
happiest day of my life? But I assure you, Roderick, little as you will
believe it, I am not made for this moving about among such a mob of
human beings; for this keeping my attention on the _qui vive_ for every
letter of the alphabet, so that neither A nor Z may go without all
fitting respect; for this making a bow to her tenth, and shaking hands
with my twentieth; for this rendering of formal homage to her parents;
for this handing a