"Say, by what name can I impart
My sense, dear girl, of what thou art?
Nay, though to frown thou darest,
I'll say thou art of _girls the pride_:
And though that modest lip may chide,
Mary! I'll call thee 'FAIREST.'
"Yet no--that word can but express
The soft and winning loveliness
In which the sight thou meetest.
But not thy heart, thy temper too,
So good, so sweet--Ha! that will do!
Mary! I'll call thee 'SWEETEST.'
"But 'fairest, sweetest,' vain would be
To speak the love I feel for thee:
Why smilest thou as thou hearest?"
"Because," she cried, "one little name
Is all I wish from thee to claim--
That _precious_ name is 'DEAREST.'"
You will not, I conclude, imagine that I remember these songs only from
having heard them that night, especially as they have very little merit;
but the truth is, I was so pleased with them, because I fancied them
applicable to my own feelings, that I requested them of the gentlemen
who sung, and they were given to me.
Lord Charles meanwhile listened to the singing with great impatience, as
he had had enough of the company, which was very numerous, and by no
means as select as it had been before. Indeed at one table were many
persons in whom the observant eye of Lord Charles discovered associates
whose evident vulgarity made him feel himself out of his place. However,
he could not presume to break up the party; and as our indefatigable
host and hostess still kept forcing the talents of their guests into
their service, song succeeded to song, and duet to duet. From one of the
latter, however, sung by a lady and gentleman, I at length derived a
soothing feeling; and in one moment, an observation of Seymour's, with,
as I fancied, a correspondent and intended expression of countenance,
removed a load from my heart, and my clouded brow became consciously to
myself unclouded again.