"I do long, Cecilia, for an
opportunity to exhibit my skill."
While her cousin was speaking, Miss Howard raised her head, with a faint
smile, and as she turned her eyes toward the other, a spectator might
have been disappointed, but could not have been displeased, by the
unexpected change the action produced in the expression of her
countenance.
Instead of the piercing black eyes that the deep color of her tresses
would lead him to expect, he would have beheld two large, mild, blue
orbs, that seemed to float in a liquid so pure as to be nearly invisible
and which were more remarkable for their tenderness and persuasion, than
for the vivid flashes that darted from the quick glances of her
companion.
"The success of your mad excursion to the seaside, my cousin, has
bewildered your brain," returned Cecilia; "but I know not how to conquer
your disease, unless we prescribe salt water for the remedy, as in some
other cases of madness."
"Ah! I am afraid your nostrum would be useless," cried Katherine; "it
has failed to wash out the disorder from the sedate Mr. Richard
Barnstable, who has had the regimen administered to him through many a
hard gale, but who continues as fair a candidate for Bedlam as ever.
Would you think it, Cicely, the crazy one urged me, in the ten minutes'
conversation we held together on the cliffs, to accept of his schooner
as a shower-bath!"
"I can think that your hardihood might encourage him to expect much, but
surely he could not have been serious in such a proposal!"
"Oh! to do the wretch justice, he did say something of a chaplain to
consecrate the measure, but there was boundless impudence in the
thought.
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