Nothing is so
exquisitely lovely as the upper part of a beautiful woman's arm, and yet
we have lived to see this admirable feature shrouded and lost in those
abominable gigots.--Why won't you, Master Kit North, lend a hand, and
originate a crusade against those vile appendages? I will lead into
action if you like--"Woe unto the women that sew pillows to all
armholes," Ezekiel, xiii. I8. May I venture on such a quotation in such
a place?--She was extremely like her brother; and her fine face was
overspread with the pale cast of thought a settled melancholy, like the
shadow of a cloud in a calm day on a summer landscape, mantled over her
fine features; and although she moved with the air of a princess, and
was possessed of that natural politeness which far surpasses all
artificial polish, yet the heaviness of her heart was apparent in every
motion, as well as in all she said.
Many people labour under an unaccountable delusion, imagining, in their
hallucination, that a Frenchwoman, for instance, or even an Englishwoman
nay, some in their madness have been heard to say that a Scotchwoman
has been known to walk. Egregious errors all! An Irishwoman of the
true Milesian descent can walk a step or two sometimes, but all other
women, fair or brown, short or tall, stout or thin, only stump, shuffle,
jig, or amble--none but a Spaniard can walk.
Once or twice she tried to enter into conversation with me on
indifferent subjects; but there was a constant tendency to approach
(against her own prearranged determination) the one, all--absorbing one,
the fate of her poor brother.
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