Sweet was her blue eye's modest smile ...
And down her shoulders graceful roll'd
Her locks profuse of paly gold ...
She charm'd at once, and tamed the heart.
_Marmion, Canto 5._
At length, an effort sent apart
The blood that curdled to her heart,
And light came to her eye,
And color dawn'd upon her cheek,
A hectic and a flutter'd streak.
* * * * *
And when her silence broke at length,
Still as she spoke she gather'd strength,
And arm'd herself to bear;--
It was a fearful sight to see
Such high resolve and constancy,
In form so soft and fair.
_Marmion, Canto 2._
She look'd down to blush, and she look'd up to sigh,
With a smile on her lips, and a tear in her eye.
_Marmion, Canto 5._
Her very soul is in home, and in the discharge of all those quiet
virtues of which home is the centre. Her husband will be to her the
object of all her care, solicitude, and affection. She will see
nothing, but by him, and through him. If he is a man of sense and
virtue, she will sympathize in his sorrows, divert his fatigue, and
share his pleasures. If she becomes the property of a churlish or
negligent husband, she will suit his taste also, for she will not
long survive his unkindness.--_Waverley._
When there can be no confidence betwixt a man and his plighted
wife, it is a sign she has no longer the regard for him that made
their engagement safe and suitable.--_The Heart of Mid-Lothian._
She was by nature perfectly good-humoured, and if her due share of
admiration and homage was duly resigned to her, no one could
possess better temper, or a more friendly disposition; but then,
like all despots, the more power that was voluntarily yielded to
her, the more she desired to extend her sway. Sometimes, even when
all her ambition was gratified, she chose to be a little out of
health, and a little out of spirits.--- _The Talisman._
Her look composed, and steady eye,
Bespoke a matchless constancy.
_Marmion, Canto 2._
The noble dame, amid the broil,
Shared the gray seneschal's high toil,
And spoke of danger with a smile;
Cheer'd the young knights, and council sage
Held with the chiefs of riper age.
_The Lay of the Last Minstrel, Canto 3._
Woman's faith and woman's trust,
Write the characters in dust.
_The Betrothed._
Ne'er did Grecian chisel trace
A Nymph, or Naiad, or a Grace,
Of finer form, or lovelier face!
What though the sun, with ardent frown,
Had slightly tinged her cheek with brown,
The sportive toil, which, short and light
Had dyed her glowing hue so bright,
Served too in hastier swell to show
Short glimpses of a breast of snow;
What though no rule of courtly grace
To measured mood had train'd her pace,--
A foot more light, a step more true,
Ne'er from the heath-flower dash'd the dew;
E'en the slight hare-bell raised its head,
Elastic from her airy tread;
What though upon her speech there hung
The accent of the mountain tongue,
Those silver sounds, so soft, so clear,
The list'ner held his breath to hear.
_Lady of the Lake, Canto 1._
Spoilt she was on all hands.... But though, from these
circumstances, the city-beauty had become as wilful, as capricious,
and as affected, as unlimited indulgence seldom fails to render
those to whom it is extended; and although she exhibited upon many
occasions that affectation of extreme shyness, silence, and
reserve, which misses are apt to take for an amiable modesty; and
upon others, a considerable portion of that flippancy which youth
sometimes confounds with wit, she had much real shrewdness and
judgment, which wanted only opportunities of observation to refine
it--a lively, good-humoured, playful disposition, and an excellent
heart.--_The Fortunes of Nigel._
The buoyant vivacity with which she had resisted every touch of
adversity, had now assumed the air of composed and submissive, but
dauntless, resolution and constancy.--_Rob Roy._
Her complexion was exquisitely fair, but the noble cast of her head
and features prevented the insipidity which sometimes attaches to
fair beauties. Her clear blue eye, which sat enshrined beneath a
graceful eyebrow of brown, sufficiently marked to give expression
to the forehead, seemed capable to kindle as well as to melt, to
command as well as to beseech.--_Ivanhoe._