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ROMANCE AND REALITY.
289



CHAPTER XXIII.

"A change came o'er the spirit of my dream."
Byron.


Now, though we do not believe much of the ancient belle alliance between Cupid and the Graces yet remains—though we do not believe that the milliner accelerates the match, and that the colour of a capote may be the colour of our fate, or the turn of a curl the turn of our fortune; having a theory of our own, that such things come by chance, and go by destiny; yet we can perfectly understand a young lady's drapery being influenced by her feelings, and that Hope may cast her couleur de rose over the mirror—that study of the fair conqueror. Emily lingered and lingered for a longer time at the glass than either Mrs. Radcliffe or Mrs. Hannah More would have approved of,—one for the sake of romance, the other for that of morality.

It is still a disputed point among authors,