Alice, or the Mysteries — Book 07

								

"No, he is still here; but he goes, I believe, little into the society
Lady Doltimore chiefly visits.  Is he one of your favourites, Miss
Cameron?"
There was a slight increase of colour in Evelyn's beautiful cheek, as she
answered,--
"Is it possible not to admire and be interested in one so gifted?"
"He has certainly noble and fine qualities," returned Legard; "but I
cannot feel at ease with him: a coldness, a hauteur, a measured
distance of manner, seem to forbid even esteem.  Yet I ought not to say
so," he added, with a pang of self-reproach.
"No, indeed, you ought not to say so," said Evelyn, shaking her head with
a pretty affectation of anger; "for I know that you pretend to like what
I like, and admire what I admire; and I am an enthusiast in all that
relates to Mr. Maltravers!"
"I know that I would wish to see all things in life through Miss
Cameron's eyes," whispered Legard, softly; and this was the most meaning
speech he had ever yet made.
Evelyn turned away, and seemed absorbed in the opera; and at that instant
the door of the box opened, and Maltravers entered.
In her open, undisguised, youthful delight at seeing him again,
Maltravers felt, indeed, "as if Paradise were opened in her face."  In
his own agitated emotions, he scarcely noticed that Legard had risen and
resigned his seat to him; he availed himself of the civility, greeted his
old acquaintance with a smile and a bow, and in a few minutes he was in
deep converse with Evelyn.
Never had he so successfully exerted the singular, the master-fascination
that he could command at will,--the more powerful from its contrast to
his ordinary coldness.  In the very expression of his eyes, the very tone
of his voice, there was that in Maltravers, seen at his happier moments,
which irresistibly interested and absorbed your attention: he could make
you forget everything but himself, and the rich, easy, yet earnest
eloquence, which gave colour to his language and melody to his voice.  In
that hour of renewed intercourse with one who had at first awakened, if
not her heart, at least her imagination and her deeper thoughts, certain
it is that even Legard was not missed.  As she smiled and listened,
Evelyn dreamed not of the anguish she inflicted.  Leaning against the
box, Legard surveyed the absorbed attention of Evelyn, the adoring eyes
of Maltravers, with that utter and crushing wretchedness which no passion
but jealousy, and that only while it is yet a virgin agony, can bestow!
He had never before even dreamed of rivalry in such a quarter; but there
was that ineffable instinct, which lovers have, and which so seldom errs,
that told him at once that in Maltravers was the greatest obstacle his
passion could encounter.  He waited in hopes that Evelyn would take the
occasion to turn to him at least--when the fourth act closed.  She did
not; and, unable to constrain his emotions, and reply to the small-talk
of Lord Doltimore, he abruptly quitted the box.