rresolution Gomez Arias remained for some time. His
sacred engagement to Leonor, and the brilliant dreams of ambition that
sported before his fancy, could not all chase away the image of
Theodora; for in this lovely girl he found all the perfections of his
former mistresses, with an absolute exemption from their foibles.

Theodora, at the tender age of seventeen, exhibited already the matured
charms of a form voluptuously beautiful, blended with the delightful
innocence of manner characteristic of that early stage of life, when the
heart is yet unacquainted with guile, and unpractised in the deceits of
the world. Her complexion was of a delicate white, without any other
colour than that which occasionally mantled upon her cheek when called
forth by the sensibility of her feelings, or diffused by the influence
of some passing emotion. So lovely and yet so pensive was her
countenance that but for the rapturous expression of her large dark
eyes, partially revealed through their long silken fringes, and the
profusion of sable ringlets which floated with unrestrained luxuriance
over her exquisitely turned neck and shoulders, you might have thought
that she had been a master-piece of some divine sculptor, who had
successfully imitated, in the purest alabaster, the fairest work of
nature.

Theodora loved Gomez Arias with all the enthusiasm of a romantic girl's
first love. She felt the most ardent attachment, and could not,--would
not conceal it from the object of her adoration. She loved him with the
genuine simplicity of a heart incapable of deceit; and, unpractised in
the school of worldly prudence, unacquainted with the arts to which more
experienced women resort for the purpose of enhancing their own charms,
or fixing more firmly the affections of men, she had surrendered her
whole soul to her lover with the most confiding innocence, and an
implicit reliance on his unbounded return to her tenderness.

This complete devotedness flattered the vanity of Gomez Arias. He beheld
an angelic girl who centered all her happiness in his love, and in the
ardour of her feelings was incapable of admitting the least alloy of
cold calculating precaution. He was charmed with a character cast in the
mould of nature, untutored yet by art, and, as amongst his former
mistresses he had never met with one so entirely devoted, he returned
her love with the warmest admiration.

Gomez Arias was fondly indulging in these pleasing reveries, when h