Page:The Clergyman's Wife.djvu/69

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The Coquette.
67

prayers read by the former, while the skilful fingers of the latter twined the long ringlets, braided the shining tresses, or laced the broidered boddice over the unsanctified heart.

But if Amanda pleads not guilty to this grave charge, and is virtuously indignant at the comparison to those historic dames, those Helens of a laxer age; we must venture to assure her that there are other respects in which she bears them too strong a resemblance for denial.

Like them, she is somewhat too generous in the revealing of her charms; like them, she will listen unreprovingly to words too bold, and grant too much to man's entreaty; but she is prudent withal; she always pauses, self-possessed and immovable, on the verge of an indiscretion, for it is not the compulsive ardor of a sensuous nature, but a cold, calculating barter for admiration that urges her to the brink of danger.

But when some true heart, wholly subdued by her spells, some honorable wooer, thinks he has noted those "weather signs of love," which prognosticate a happy suit, and the hour comes for him to ask that question which is the highest tribute he can pay to womanhood, how is Amanda moved by the invitation to "walk the long path" by his side? Where is the bashful tremor that runs through a responsive heart? Where is the mantling veil of rose that seeks to enshroud an innocent face from a lover's gaze? Where is the downcast look of

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