HOW did he look? What like was he? Was he well-favoured? It be hard to
say. There are no looks in love, no outward seeming, no telling over of
features. When you are but a moth in the candle of his eye, can you tell
his stature, or if he be dark or fair? Did Magdalene, that was like
Felena, know, when she lay at the feet of the only man she ever loved
yet never loved, whether the carpenter’s Son featured His mother or not,
whether He was big or little in stature? Shall we know, when we be come
into His presence that made us, what outward seeming His majesty has?
No. Only our hearts will tremble in the light. I could never tell you
how he looked as he stood there; but I can tell you how the women looked
that glassed him.
Tivvy and Polly gaped in wonder, finger on lip. Moll and Sukey leaned
forrard as you lean to a fire in winter, and their mother gathered them
to herself jealously. Missis Sexton spread her flounces, and Jancis
coloured up and said “O!” and set one of her ringlets straight, and said
“O!” again. Mother smiled at him, and Felena—well, Felena’s eyes
settled on him as a brown owl drops to its prey.
I sat down farther back in my corner, and a faintness came over me. For
here was my lover and my lord, and behold! I was hare-shotten.
The room was all so still, you could hear the drip of water off the
roof.
All of a sudden he laughed out, and indeed it must have been a comical
thing to see us all like mice when Pussy goes by, and to hear us one
minute making such a to-do, and the next making no to-do at all.