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272 first noticed her; "perhaps a plant of foreign growth."

"That I am persuaded she is not!" ejaculated Harcourt, in tones of energy; "such unaffected modesty, such retired elegance, Britannia's daughters alone can boast! Who can she be?"

"Why, that is precisely the question I wish to have answered," rejoined the other. "I have no doubt she is some new star about to appear in the hemisphere of fashion; she will take, for she has succeeded admirably in person, and novelty will make her all the rage. Moderate your impatience awhile, Harcourt, and you will surely see this little magnet at some of the parties, balls, or routs you frequent: depend upon it, she is to appear this spring, and will very soon be initiated into all the fashionable gay meetings and public resorts of the Town."

Too much absorbed by attention, these airy nothings passed unheard by Harcourt, who, suddenly withdrawing his arm, hastened to follow the incomparable fair one. Admiration and rapture had been so commixed, so intensely excited, that those restraints existing in polished life, the punctilios practised, the etiquette preserved,—all, in the tumultuous thoughts of Harcourt, were banished, accounted but as cold reserve and useless forms.