Page:The genius - Carl Grosse tr Joseph Trapp 1796.djvu/287

 whom I immediately guessed to be the chevalier, was all the alteration she had made in her dress.

I could plainly discover, that there was a kind of confusion in her attitudes and deportment. All becomes instinct in an innocent maiden, if the faces the man, whom her heart has secretly chosen. All the powers of art could not have devised and executed a more charming reception, than simple nature afforded here. This confusion was a secret avowal, that her heart wanted no foreign impulse, not even the commands of a respected parent, to do for me that, which she did afterwards. Her mind spoke its meaning in every feature of her face, though rather timorously, lest it might be understood. The original of her sweet illusion, was now conveyed by her own father into her arms, with the request to cherish him as a brother. But will the human heart always contain itself within the prescribed limits?

The father did not quite understand his daughter, nor did he think, that the recep-