214
LADY GERALDINE'S COURTSHIP.
When a sudden silver speaking, gravely cadenced, overrung them,
And a sudden silken stirring touched my inner nature through.
I looked upward and beheld her! With a calm and regnant spirit,
Slowly round she swept her eyelids, and said clear before them all—
"Have you such superfluous honor, sir, that, able to confer it,
You will come down, Mr. Bertram, as my guest to Wycombe Hall?"
Here she paused,—she had been paler at the first word of her speaking;
But because a silence followed it, blushed scarlet, as for shame;
Then, as scorning her own feeling, resumed calmly—"I am seeking
More distinction than these gentlemen think worthy of my claim.
