Page:Romance & Reality 2.pdf/154

152 anticipated guest was to be the hero. She had calculated probabilities, dwelt on the chances of association, the idleness of the country, the necessity of an attachment to give interest to the ride, and novelty to the walk; besides, she had recalled not one suspicious blush only, but many. The feminine part in the drama was therefore cast. Now for the gentleman. Many a heart is caught in the rebound. The brilliant coquette, who had led captivity captive, could have inflicted no deeper wound than a little wholesome mortification;—a little preference from another would be especially flattering. Then the pretensions of her protégée were any thing but undervalued. Emily certainly was never seen to greater advantage than just at present. The sweetness of feeling, rather than of temper, was a charm of all others to be appreciated in the domestic life they were now leading. Unrepressed by her natural timidity, her mental stores developed themselves in a small circle where they only met with encouragement. There was an extreme fascination to one palled with the brilliancy, and tired of the uniformity of society, in the freshness, the simplicity, so touched with romance, that made the poetry of Emily's