ely, smiling
visage, and buoyant, unpremeditative air, were triumphant always while
I beheld them; but the pensive, earnest look of Susannah, the mellow
cadences of her tones, seemed always to sink into my soul, and were
certainly remembered longest. Present, Emmeline was irresistible;
absent, I thought chiefly of Susannah. Breakfast was fairly over
before I came to a decision. We adjourned to the parlour,--and there,
with Emmeline at the piano, and Susannah with her Coleridge in
hand--her favourite poet--I was quite as much distracted as before.
The bravura of the one swept me completely off my feet. And when I
pleaded with the other to read me the touching poem of
"Genevieve"---her low, subdued and exquisitely modulated utterance, so
touching, so true to the plaintive and seductive sentiment, so
harmonious even when broken, so thrilling even when most checked and
hushed, was quite as little to be withstood. Like the ass betwixt two
bundles of hay, my eyes wandered from one to the other uncertain where
to fix. And thus passed the two first hours after breakfast.

The third brought an acquisition to our party. We heard the trampling
of horses' feet in the court below, and all hurried to the windows, to
see the new comer. We had but a glimpse of him--a tall, good-looking
personage, about thirty years of age, with great whiskers, and a huge
military cloak. Squire Owens met him in the reception room, and they
remained some half hour or three quarters together. It was evidently a
business visit. The girls were all agog to know what it was about, and
I was mortified to think that Emmeline was now far less eager to
interest me than before. She now turned listlessly over the pages of
her music book, or strummed upon the keys of her piano, with the air of
one whose thoughts were elsewhere. Susannah did not seem so much
disturbed,--she still continued to draw my attention to the more
pleasing passages of the poet; but I could see, or I fancied, that even
she was somewhat curious as to the coming of the stranger. Her eyes
turned occasionally to the parlour door at the slightest approaching
sound, and she sometimes looked in my face with a vacant eye, when I
was making some of my most favourable points of conversation.

At length there was a stir within, a buzz and the scraping of feet.
The door was thrown open, and, ushered by the father, the stranger made
his appearance. His air was rather _distingue_. His perso