o is best fitted to
resist them, nor assuredly ought Con Cregan to be selected for such
self-denial. I stood in the circle with wondering admiration, delighted
with everything. Oh, happy age I glorious hour of the balmy night!
excellent grape-juice! how much of delicious enjoyment do I owe you all
three! I suppose it is the case with every one, but I know it to be with
me, that wherever I am, or however situated, I immediately single
out some particular object for my especial predilection. If it be a
landscape, I at once pitch upon the spot for a cottage, a temple, or a
villa; if it be a house, I instantly settle in my mind the room I would
take as my own, the window I would sit beside, the very chair I'd
take to lounge in; if it be a garden, I fix upon the walk among whose
"embowering blossoms I would always be found: and so, if the occasion be
one of festive enjoyment, I have a quick eye to catch her whose air and
appearance possess highest attractions for me. Not always for me the
most beautiful,--whose faultless outlines a sculptor would like to
chisel,--but one whose fair form and loveliness are suggestive of
the visions one has had in boyhood, filling up, in rich colors, the
mind-drawn picture we have so often gazed on, and made the heroine of
a hundred little love-stories, only known to one's own heart. And, oh,
dear! are not these about the very best of our adventures? At least,
if they be not, they are certainly those we look back on with fewest
self-reproaches.

In a mood of this kind it was that my eye rested upon a slightly formed
but graceful girl, whose dark eyes twice or thrice had met my own,
and been withdrawn again with a kind of indolent reluctance--as I
fancied--very flattering to me. She wore the square piece of scarlet
cloth on her head, so fashionable among the Mexican peasantry, the
corners of which hung down with heavy gold tassels among the clusters
of her raven locks; a yellow scarf, of the brightest hue, was gracefully
thrown over one shoulder, and served to heighten the brilliancy of her
olive tint; her jupe, short and looped up with a golden cord, displayed
a matchless instep and ankle. There was an air of pride--"fierte,"
even--in the position of the foot, as she stood, that harmonized
admirably with the erect carriage of her head, and the graceful
composure of her crossed arms made her a perfect picture. Nor was I
quite certain that she did not know this herself; certain is it,
her air,