Page:Modern literature (1804 Volume 1).djvu/302

This page needs to be proofread.
  • tremely well, yet no couple equalled, or

nearly equalled, William and Maria.—In the course of their festive amusement, and in the intervals of rest, our hero did not fail to tell his fair partner how beautiful she was, how lovely, how irresistibly interesting. She pretended to consider these declarations as mere words of course, and to answer with gay indifference. Gaiety, sprightliness, and brilliancy she displayed; indifference did not appear. Our hero, inspired by Maria, and moreover warmed with the social bowl, to which the old gentleman had allowed but little respite, gave vent, after supper, to his imagination; delighted by the novelty and beauty of his imagery, and by the sallies of his wit, surprised and fascinated his hearers. The stage happening to be mentioned, and Mrs. Siddons in Belvidera called from our youth the pathos of genius so ir-