If I lacked real wit, I had pertness; and I thought I had a manner of
dashing boldness, that must do one-half the business with any girl,
while my converse trick of softening my voice and eyes to her on
occasion, would do the other half.
But Margaret took her time before giving a hint of her heart's
condition. She was the same old comrade to us, she confided to us her
adverse opinions of other people, laughed with us, and often at us
(when it was like as not that she herself had made us ridiculous),
told us her little secrets, let us share her gaiety and her dejection
alike, teased us, soothed us, made us serve her, and played the
spoiled beauty with us to the full of the part. And a beauty she was,
indeed; ten times more than in her childhood. The bud was approaching
its full bloom. She was of the average tallness; slender at neck,
waist, wrist, and ankle, but filling out well in the figure, which had
such curves as I swear I never saw elsewhere upon earth. She had the
smallest foot, with the highest instep; such as one gets not often an
idea of in England. Her little head, with its ripples of chestnut
hair, sat like that of a princess; and her face, oval in shape, proud
and soft by turns in expression--I have no way of conveying the
impression it gave one, but to say that it made me think of a nosegay
of fresh, flawless roses, white and red. Often, by candle-light,
especially if she were dressed for a ball, or sat at the play, I would
liken her to some animate gem, without the hardness that belongs to
real precious stones; for indeed she shone like a jewel, thanks to the
lustre of her eyes in artificial light.
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