Page:The New Monthly Magazine - Volume 011.djvu/51

richer tints of the velvet moss, there overhung by the tall feathery fern, and every where adorned by those innumerable creeping plants which love the shelter of woods and groves. At a distance from any high road, and accessible only through by-lanes and meadows, the spot seemed destined for the secret meetings of lovers, whose wooing need fear no other listeners than a blind horse and patient donky sometimes put in to graze, and no louder interruption than the cawing of rooks, or the twitter of the Jarks that rose from the corn-field which skirted one side of the wood. Hither I used to walk from Oxford, and wait the arrival of my Fiordelisa. If she lingered, I paced impatiently out, and fancied myself jealous and miserable; then when at length I saw her approaching, I hurried towards her, uttered a thousand tender reproaches, and believed that every hope and happiness of life hung upon her smiles. How eloquently I talked! how approvingly she listened! At length, after I had lingered at Oxford during great of the long vacation, my father summoned me to his country-seat, and insisted upon my allowing myself a short relaxation from study. I wrote some most pathetic verses upon my separation from my charmer, and tore myself away, convinced that I should be dreadfully out of spirits till my return to Oxford—I was not quite sure that I should not be seriously ill. Affairs, however, took a more favourable turn. My sporting propensities returned with original ardour; a morning's success with my dogs, made me cheerful in the evening with the ladies, and, what with walking and talking, I was too tired to complain to my pillow of Fiordelisa's absence. A handsome widow, too, universally courted and admired, condescended to dance and talk with me, to choose my arm when we walked, to sing my favourite songs and to wear my favourite colours. A youth of twenty is in great danger from the regard of women older than himself; their notice flatters, their easy manners dissipate the timidity which girlish bashfulness might increase, and their maturer age permits a degree of encouragement which is denied to younger coquettes. Mrs. G.'s bright eyes, her spirited conversation, her musical talents, her smiles peculiarly bewitching because she smiled on me, soon convinced me that although my heart was irrevocably Fiordelisa's, yet it would be only an act of common civility to give up my time and attention to my present kind companion. I wrote to my absent fair one, and was as much in love as ever upon paper. Fiordelisa answered my letter, thank God, for, if she had never written, I might have continued to nurse a fancied attachment, and she might now be my wife.

Nonsesne, which breathes itself in gentle murmurs from the lips of a beautiful woman, is easily mistaken for sense; but, alas! put it on paper, and the delusion flies; give it a local habitation, and all its folly become visible. My charmer's letter, defective in both orthography and syntax, was inexpressibly silly; much too fond, too full of commonplace quotation, and, alas! it contained a copy of verses on my departure, and a request that I would print them at the end of my intended volume. Heavens! how indignant I felt at the idea of annexing such trash to my own superior productions; and yet too soon I remembered that it was in a great measure owing to the praises Fiordelisa had bestowed on my poetry that I had been induced to resolve on its pub-