Alfred; or, The Adventures of a French Gentleman — page 18: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

OF A FRENCH GENTLEMAN. 9: eyes betokened an innocence of soul that alone belongs tv virgin modesty ; and when those beauteous orbs were irradiated with the enthusiasm which music creates in the mind of its votaries, or bya momentary anger— : “ape (at da A Sa tae for e’en in the tranquillest climes Soft breezes will ruffle the blossoms sometimes— still were their glances replete with chastity and bashfulness struggling against feeling. Her hair was black; and she usually wore it in luxu- riant ringlets, which partially concealed a face where the vermilion of youth and health was so exquisitely blended with the pale white, that the shade of the one seemed lost in the other as objects that diminish and gradually disappear in distance. Her brow—on which no anxiety yet sate, and which had never blushed for aught ap- proaching the slightest dereliction from moral rectitude—was fair and high; and above it were parted the dark locks that fell in profusion on a white neck, thus forming an agreeable contrast. Her nose was perfectly straight; her mouth was small; but the lips were pouting and red—and when a smile played upon them, they revealed a set of teeth that might have brought the whitest ivory to shame. And on her countenance was an expression of such sweet simplicity, that no libertine, however emboldened by his successes in amatory warfare, could have ventured to gaze rudely on Eloise: there was that halo of chastity and innocence around her, which made those who beheld her scarcely ever dare to think of love, but to regard her in admiration mingled with respect. She was like the delicate bud that the ravaging hand of the gardener, who has remorse- lessly gathered common flowers, does not venture to pluck. Frail and weak as woman is, innocence with her was strength—modesty was a protecting shield—the chaste glance of her down-cast eye was a sword to disarm the attacks of the most adventurous. No one, how- ever brutal his disposition, could have injured that fair creature ; but thousands would have been ready and proud to protect her. So un- assuming was she in her manners, so amiable in her disposition, and so unsophisticated in her ideas, that the breath of calumny could not reach her, had there been found one malignant tongue to utter a derogatory syllable against her honour. The old, who are generally bitter in their remarks upon youthful beauty, dared not, nor even wished, to couple her name with scandal; the bare mention of a word calculated to injure her fair fame would have proclaimed itself a he. Such was Eloise at the age of sixteen, when a youth, whose name was Alfred de Rosann, became acquainted with the family. At first sight he was struck with her beauty ; her accomplishments and spot- less character achieved the rest. In a very short time he was deeply enamoured of Miss Clayton, and he hoped that he was not entirely indifferent to her in whom he had centred his entire affections. The mother and uncle—ever watchful over the welfare and interests of the young maiden—were far from displeased with the attentions which the youth demonstrated towards their fair charge; as Alfred was to all appearance an eligible suitor for her hand, Alfred De Rosann was the only son of a rich merchant, who, dying at an advanced age, left him a handsome fortune, with strict injunctions 2 CONNIE OOKS (S@) =)