_restauration_ proceeded. Of all there assembled, the Parisian
feelings of Mademoiselle Viefville were the most excited; for to her,
the scene was one of pure delights, with the noble panorama of
forest-clad mountains, the mirror-like lake, the overshadowing oaks,
and the tangled brakes of the adjoining woods.

"_Mais, vraiment ceci surpasse les Tuileries, meme dans leur propre
genre_!" she exclaimed, with energy. "_On passer ait volontiers par
les dangers du desert pour y parvenir_."

Those who understood her, smiled at this characteristic remark, and
most felt disposed to join in the enthusiasm. Still, the manner in
which their companions expressed the happiness they felt, appeared
tame and unsatisfactory to Mr. Bragg and Mr. Dodge, these two persons
being accustomed to see the young of the two sexes indulge in broader
exhibitions of merry-making than those in which it comported with the
tastes and habits of the present party to indulge. In vain Mrs.
Hawker, in her quiet dignified way, enjoyed the ready wit and
masculine thoughts of Mrs. Bloom field, appearing to renew her youth;
or, Eve, with her sweet simplicity, and highly cultivated mind and
improved tastes, seemed like a highly-polished mirror, to throw back
the flashes of thought and memory, that so constantly gleamed before
both; it was all lost on these thoroughly matter-of-fact
utilitarians. Mr. Effingham, all courtesy and mild refinement, was
seldom happier; and John Effingham was never more pleasant, for he
had laid aside the severity of his character, to appear, what he
ought always to have been, a man in whom intelligence and quickness
of thought could be made to seem secondary to the gentler qualities.
The young men were not behind their companions, either, each, in his
particular way, appearing to advantage, gay, regulated, and full of a
humour that was rendered so much the more agreeable, by drawing its
images from a knowledge of the world, that was tempered by
observation and practice.

Poor Grace, alone, was the only one of the whole party, always
excepting Aristabulus and Steadfast, who, for those fleeting but gay
hours, was not thoroughly happy. For the first time in her life, she
felt her own deficiencies, that ready and available knowledge, so
exquisitely feminine in its nature and exhibition, which escaped Mrs.
Bloomfield and Eve, as it might be from its own excess; which the
former possessed almost, intuitively, a gift of Heaven, and which t