Joseph Wilmot, or, The Memoirs of a Man-Servant — page 42: what you’re looking at

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

ee ee JOSEPH WILMOT; .OR, THE was chastely delicate in its taper slenderness, as that of a young girl of her age should be: but yet its fairy lightness and sylphid symmetry denoted the incipient expansion of charms budding towards the contours of womanhood. Thus the gentle un- dulations of the bust were defined by the neatly fitting dress; and nothing could exceed the ad- mirable slope of her shoulders. She was tall for her age—upright as a dart—with a lithe willowy elasticity of figure properly belonging to girlhood, and yet fully consistent with mingled elegance and grace. T could dwell throughout whole pages upon the lovely portrait of this sweet angelic creature as she first broke like a heavenly vision upon my view ; and young though I was, I felt ravished—bewil- dercd—amazed! Even then I experienced the etherealizing influence of Annabel’s beauty. Around her appeared to hover as it were a halo of chastity: her presence exhaled the perfume of innocence: the spirit of girlish artlessness, female generosity, and all endearing qualities, appeared to shine as it were through her. The innocence of her age, the ingenuous candour of her disposition, and the warmth of feeling of which her generous heart ‘was susceptible, were all expressed in the limpid azure of those large eyes, which, swimming in their clear whites, were fringed with dark brown lashes. And these lashes, as well as the arching brows, formed an agreeable contrast with the golden hues of her lustrous and lusuriaat hair. I must not omit to add that her head was as gracefully poised on the delicate, slender, and flexible neck as a tulip on its graceful stalk; or that her hands were small even to a fault, with the fingers long and tapering, and crowned by pellucid nails, almond-shaped and rose-tinted: while her feet and ankles afforded no exception to the exquisite symmetry of all her other proportions. Let the reader pardon me if I have dwelt thus long upon this charming portraiture—the most charming amongst the many to be introduced in my singularly varied and eventful narrative. Perhaps I did not fully comprehend all the matchless per- fections of this fairy creature during the first few minutes that I beheld her—nor even during the first few wecks of our acquaintance: perhaps I was too young and too inexperienced to have such impressions made upon me. But in after years has my memory travelled back—and even while writing now, do my recollections thus retrace the vista of intervening time, and settle upon that precise day—that hour—those minutes, when Annabel and I first stood in each other’s presence; and I know—I feel—I remember there arose within me the presentiment that this angelic crea- ture was to exercise no ordinary influence over my future destiny. I stood, I say, bew iIdered and amazed in the presence of that lovely vision. as to its reality: I could not bring myself to be- lieve that it was otherwise than an augel-shape, permitted to appear to me, with its sweet coun- tenance in which girlish simplicity, high intelli- gence, and soft pensiveness were all blended with an irresistible power of fascination. I was awakened from my sort of half-dream by Mrs. Lanover speaking, as she said, “ Annabel, this is your cousin Joseph, whom your father led you to expect.” Ei carefully looked after : eee ae + MEMOIRS OF A MAN-SERVANT. 29 My cousin? She ad- vanced towards me; and as a modest bashfulness tinged her cheeks with the delicate hue of the sea- shell pink, she extended her hand, which I at once clasped and pressed with a grateful fervour at being allowed to eall her “cousin.” But scarcely had this introduction taken place, when the ill- favoured servant-woman entered to announce that a tailor had come to measure me. The man was shown into the room—his business was speedily despatched—he departed—and I was again alone with those two whom I was told to regard as my relations. “Ah! now I was scarcely sorry to be compelled to look upon Mr. Lanover as my uncle, —since by so doing I had found such an aunt and such a cousin ! He need not have told his wiie that I was “a slippery fellow,” by which he doubt- less meant that I should endeavour to run away for I had not been an hour in the society of his wife and daughter, ere I had learnt to love them thoroughly. But again and again did I marvel to myself that such a man could be s0 closely connected with two beings as unlike himself as the fairest and serenest clime differs from the horrid regions of hyperborean ice. I found that Annabel was, as her looks de- noted, of the kindest disposition and most amiable character—without the slightest particle of affecta- tion in her manners—and as thoroughly incapable of guile as an infant of sbeing agit ated by the stormy passions of grown-up man. She was evi- dently much attached—indeed devotedly so, to her mother, who, as I learnt in due course, was in a decline. But Annabel was ignorant of the real nature ot her beloved parent’s disease: she appre- hended not that it must inevitably be soon closed in death. She only knew that Mrs. Lanover was very unwell—that she had long been ailing: but she hoped that this cherished and adored mother would eventually be restored to health. She minis- tered to her parent in the most affectionate man- ner, showing her al! those little thousand and one attentions which are so many evidences of real genuine love, and which conduce so materially to the solace of the invalid. The mother, too, adored Annabel. And well she might !—not merely be- cause in her she possessed the loveliest of beings and the tenderest of daughters—but because cir- cumstances had rendered their love so mu- tually indispensable. For here—before entering into minuter details respecting my first expe- riences in Mr. Lanover’s house—I may at once de- scribe what I suspected from the first, but what I only had confirmed in the course of a few weeks. This was that the wretched humpback was the most remorseless of tyrants,—sometimes giving way to outbursts of terrific passion—at other times de- porting himself with a brutal sullenness for days lovely girl by such an endearing name ! I was incredulous | together—and then allowing an interval of calm to ensue ere the exhibition of some other phase of his varied and diabolic temper. But what was Mr. Lansver? of what protes- sion ? what avocation did he follow? whence did he derive his income? He had represented hinn- self to Mr. Delmar as a gentleman living upon his means. He had a back room fitted up as an oilice, where he sometimes received visitors on business | —where he often sat writing for hours together— and also where he shut himself up for whole days My cousin? Oh! how deli how delightful to call this ee oe tea ee eee . ecient — 8 ee RE Oe ee eee ke ees rs a a ee ee a we 8 a ee er meet, em: i ii tt i A Rt GS CC LL LLL: CR eta eo A ls A ES, TE TR AE EN ES a OOO) S (Cc) im