Page:The Prose Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley (Volume 1).djvu/286

238 figure of the stranger who sate before Eloise. His countenance of excessive beauty even, but dark, emanated with an expression of superhuman loveliness; not that grace which may freely be admired, but acknowledged in the inmost soul by sensations mysterious, and before unexperienced. He tenderly inquired, whether the night air had injured the ladies, and pressed them to partake of a repast which the other three men had prepared; he appeared to unbend a severity, which evidently was habitual, and by extreme brilliancy and playfulness of wit, joined to talents for conversation, possessed by few, made Madame de St. Irvyne forget that she was dying; and her daughter, as in rapturous attention she listened to each accent of the stranger, remembered no more that she was about to lose her mother.

In the stranger's society, they almost forgot the lapse of time: a pause in the conversation at last occurred.

"Can Ma'am'selle sing?" inquired the stranger.

"I can," replied Eloise; "and with pleasure."

How swiftly through heaven's wide expanse
 * Bright clay's resplendent colours fade!

How sweetly does the moonbeam's glance
 * With silver tint St. Irvyne's glade!

No cloud along the spangled air,
 * Is borne upon the evening breeze;

How solemn is the scene! how fair
 * The moonbeams rest upon the trees!