Nor was Lady Adelaide less amiable. She was glad, on any terms, to escape from a ball which she called the purgatory of provincials; and besides, the handsome and graceful Lorraine was no bad addition to a family party; while Edward thought to himself, he had never seen any thing so lovely. The cloak, lined with ermine, was drawn in most exquisite drapery round her beautiful figure; the night air had already begun to relax the long ringlets which suited so well with the high white forehead, and a face whose loveliness was of that haughty style to which homage was familiar, and conquest as much a necessity as a desire.
There was something, too, picturesque in the scene: they had now entered the shrubberies, whose luxury of blossom was indeed a contrast to the dark forests where he had lately sojourned,—as much a contrast as the stately beauty at his side was to the pretty laughing peasants of Norway. His imagination was excited; and as yet, with Edward, imagination was more than one half love.
They reached the house; and what with Morton's return, Lorraine's wit, and Adelaide's gratified vanity, the supper passed with a degree of gaiety very rare in a house whose atmo-
