My reader has seen Julia Dodd play both parts; but it is her child's face
she has now been turning for several pages; so it may be prudent to
remind him she has shone on Alfred Hardie in but one light; a young but
Juno-like woman. Had she shown "my puppy" her childish qualities, he
would have despised her--he had left that department himself so recently.
But Nature guarded the budding fair from such a disaster.
We left Alfred Hardie standing in the moonlight gazing at her lodging.
This was sudden; but, let slow coaches deny it as loudly as they like,
fast coaches exist; and Love is a Passion, which, like Hate, Envy,
Avarice, &c., has risen to a great height in a single day. Not that
Alfred's was "Love at first sight;" for he had seen her beauty in the
full blaze of day with no deeper feeling than admiration; but in the
moonlight he came under more sovereign spells than a fair face: her
virtues and her voice. The narrative of their meeting has indicated the
first, and as to the latter, Julia was not one of those whose beauty goes
out with the candle; her voice was that rich, mellow, moving organ, which
belongs to no rank nor station; is born, not made; and, flow it from the
lips of dairymaid or countess, touches every heart, gentle or simple,
that is truly male.
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