Page:Romance & Reality 1.pdf/68

62 adhering with true feminine pertinacity to her opinion, though very willing to choose new ground for her argument. "First of all, allow me to observe, I hate to hear one woman praise another's beauty; they do it with such a covenanting air of self-sacrifice, such vain-glorious setting forth of–'There, you see I am not the least envious.' Secondly, I beg to differ from you: I remember anxiety was wound up to its highest of expectation when the fair songstress first appeared: she advanced to the front of the stage—her white arms in that half-crossed, half-clasped attitude, which so deprecatingly expresses female timidity—a burst of applause went round in compliment to those superlatively snowy hands and arms; next, she made a step forward, and in so doing displayed a foot, small enough for the slipper which the stork so maliciously dropped to waken the Egyptian king from his reverie—and a second round of applause announced due appreciation of that aërial foot; finally, the eyes were raised, and the face turned to the audience, but the face was received in deep silence: that first opinion was the true one. But wait till the next scene, and we shall agree—for our admiration of Malibran is mutual."