Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1859-10-20
CHAPTER II.

1t is in the evening of the 2lst of June. The
day has been bright and ,saltry, and the sun
will still be more than an hour above the hori-
zon, but his rays, broken by the leafy fret-work
of the elms that border the park, no longer
prevent two ladies from carrying out their
cushions and embroidery, and seating themseves
to work on the lawn in front of Cheverel Manor.
The soft turf gives way even under the fairy
tread of the younger lady, whose small stature
and slim figure rest on the tiniest of full-grown
feet. She trips along before the elder, carrying
the cushions, which she places in the favourte
spot, just on the slope by II clump of laurels
where they can see the sunbeams sparkling
among tho water-lies, and can be themselves
seen from the dining room windows. She has
deposited the cushions, and now turns round l.,
SO that you may have a full view of her as she
stands waiting the slower advance of the elder
lady. You are at once arrested by her large
dark eyes, which, in their Inexpensive un-
conscious beauty, resemble the eyes of fawn :;
and it is only by an effort of attention that you
notice the absence of bloom on her young
cheek, and the southern yellowish tint of her
small neck and face, rising above the little black
lace kerchief which prevents the too immediate
comparison of her skin with her white muslin
gown Her large eyes seem all the morestrklng
because the dark hair is gathered away from her
face, under little cap set at the top of her
head with a cherry y-coloured bow on one side
The elder lady, who is advancing towards the
cushions, IS cast in very different mould of
womanhood. She is tall, and looks the taller
because her powdered hair is turned backward
over toupce, and surmounted by lace and rib
bons. She is nearly fifty, but her complexion
is still fresh and beautiful, with the beauty of
an auburn blond; her proud pouting lips, and
her head thrown a little backward as she walks,
give an expression of hauteur which is not
contradicted by the cold grey eye. The tucked
in kerchief, rising full over the low tight bod
dice of her blue dress, sets off the majestic form
of her bust, and she treads the lawn as if it were
one of Sir Joshua Reynolds stately ladies, who
had suddenly stepped from her frame to enjoy
the evening cool.
"Put the cushions lower, Caterina, that we
may not have 80 much sun upon u.s." she called
out, in tone of authority, when still at some
distance.
Caterina obeyed, and they sat down, making
two bright patches of red and white and blue
on the green background of the laurels and the
lawn, which would look none the less pretty in
u picture because one of the woman's hearts
was rather cold and the other rather sad.
And charming picture Cheverel Manor
would have made that evening, if some English
Watteau had been there to paint it: the castel-
lated house of fgrey-tinted stone, with tho flicker
ing sunbeams sending dashes of golden light
across the many-shaped panes IN the mullioned
windows, and great beech leaning athwart
one Of the hankng towers, and breaking, with
its dark Aattened boughs, the formal symmetry
of the front the broad gravo.-walk winding on
the right, by row of tall pines towards the
pool-on the left branching out among swelling
grassy mounds, surmounted by clumps of trees,
where the red trunk of the Scotch fir glows in
the descending sunlight against the bright green
of lines and acacias the great pool, whero a
pair of swans are swimming lazily with one leg
tucked under a wing, and where the open water
lilies lie calmly accepting the kisses of the Aut-
teriug lght-sparkles the lawn, with its smooth
emerald greenness, slopng down to the roughel
and browner herbage Of the park, from which
it is invlsibiy fenced by little stream that
winds away from the pool, and disappears under
a wooden bridge in the distant pleasure ground
and on this lawn our two ladies, whose part ir
the landscape the painter, standing at favour
able point of view in the park, would represent
with few little dabs of red and white ane
blue.
Seen from the great Gothic windows of th'
dining room, they had much more defnitenes
Of outline, and were distinctly visible to th'
three gentlemen slipping their claret there, IL
as two fair women, in whom all three had
personal interest. These gentlemen were
group worth considering attentiyely; but an,
one entering that dining room for the first time
would perhaps hayO had his attention even NOR
strongly arrested by the room itself, which Wa
50 bare of furniture that it impressed one witt
its architectural beauty like cathedral, /
piece of mating stretched from door to door,
bit of worn carpet under the dining table, and
sidoboard in deep recess, did not detam tn
} eye for moment from the lofty groined ceiling
with its richly y-carved pendants, all of cream
white, relieved here and there by touches o
r gold. On one side, this lofty ceiling was SUP
ported by pillars and arches, beyond which
$ lower ceiling, miniature copy of the hight
' one, covered the square projection which, wit
its three large pointed windows, forped I'll
central feature Of the building. The room lool
y ed less like place to dine in than piece
y space enclosed simply for the sake of beautif,
d outline; and the small dining table, with Il
: party round it, seemed an odd and insignilical
: accident, rathor than anything connected vii
: the original purpose of the apartment.
Bat, examined closely, that group was #
d from insignificant; for the eldest, who was rea
If ing in the newspaper the last portentous pr
Z ceedings of the French parliaments, and turnil
d with occasional comments to his young col
IS panions, was as fine specimen Of the old En-