his unpleasant manner, is really one of the most
excellent and kind-hearted men in the world. As I have already told
you, he did not assume these manners until the time he became lord of
the entail; previous to then he was a modest, gentle youth. Besides, he
is not, after all, so bad as you make him out to be; and further, I
should like to know why you are so averse to him." As my uncle said
these words he smiled mockingly, and the blood rushed hotly and
furiously into my face. I could not pretend to hide from myself--I saw
it only too clearly, and felt it too unmistakably--that my peculiar
antipathy to the Baron sprang out of the fact that I loved, even to
madness, a being who appeared to me to be the loveliest and most
fascinating of her sex who had ever trod the earth. This lady was none
other than the Baroness herself. Her appearance exercised a powerful
and irresistible charm upon me at the very moment of her arrival, when
I saw her traversing the apartments in her Russian sable cloak, which
fitted close to the exquisite symmetry of her shape, and with a rich
veil wrapped about her head. Moreover, the circumstance that the
two old aunts, with still more extraordinary gowns and be-ribboned
head-dresses than I had yet seen them wear, were sweeping along one on
each side of her and cackling their welcomes in French, whilst the
Baroness was looking about her in a way so gentle as to baffle all
description, nodding graciously first to one and then to another, and
then adding in her flute-like voice a few German words in the pure
sonorous dialect of Courland--all this formed a truly remarkable and
unusual picture, and my imagination involuntarily connected it with the
ghostly midnight visitant,--the Baroness being the angel of light who
was to break the ban of the spectral powers of evil. This wondrously
lovely lady stood forth in startling reality before my mind's eye. At
that time she could hardly be nineteen years of age, and her face, as
delicately beautiful as her form, bore the impression of the most
angelic good-nature; but what I especially noticed was the
indescribable fascination of her dark eyes, for a soft melancholy gleam
of aspiration shone in them like dewy moonshine, whilst a perfect
elysium of rapture and delight was revealed in her sweet and beautiful
smile. She often seemed completely lost in her own thoughts, and at
such moments her lovely face was swept by dark and fleeting shadows.
Many observers wo