Page:Paul Clifford Vol 2.djvu/252

244 the light through the richest and softest hues,—the music itself sounded more musically than during the day,—gipsy-tents were pitched at wild corners and copses, and the bright wood-fires burning in them blazed merrily upon the cold yet cheerful air of the increasing night. The view was really novel and inviting; and as it had been an understood matter that ladies were to bring furs, cloaks, and boots, all those, who thought they looked well in such array, made little groups, and scattered themselves about the grounds and in the tents. They, on the contrary, in whom "the purple light of love" was apt by the frost to be propelled from the cheeks to the central ornament of the face, or who thought a fire in a room quite as agreeable as a fire in a tent, remained within, and contemplated the scene through the open windows.

Lucy longed to return home, nor was the Squire reluctant, but, unhappily, it wanted an hour to the time at which the carriage had been ordered, and she mechanically joined a group of