In a word, Walter, at sight of the
lovers, was suddenly seized with sentimental sympathy; they both seemed
to him so beautiful in their way. The man was small, but his heart was
not; he stuck to the woman like a man, and poured hot love into her ears,
and almost lost the impediment in his speech. The woman pretended to be
cooler, but she half turned her head toward him, and her half-closed eyes
and heightened color showed she was drinking every word. Her very gayety,
though it affected nonchalance, revealed happiness to such as can read
below the surface of her sex. The Colonel's treacherous ally, after
gazing at them with marked approval, and saying, "I couldn't do it better
myself," which was surely a great admission for a lover to make, slipped
quietly into Hope's workshop not to spoil sport--a juvenile idea which we
recommend to older persons, and to such old maids as have turned sour.
The great majority of old maids are match-makers, whatever cant may keep
saying and writing to the contrary.
"No wonder at all," said Percy, who was evidently in the middle of some
amorous speech; "you are the goddess of my idolatry.
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