ABSTRACT
The ceremony of congratulatory cards now commenced. It was followed by visits from those ladies who wished to form a closer intimacy, and by the introduction of the bride and lady Arabella at court. The death of sir Simon, though now nearly banished by subsequent events from the memory of his amiable relic, was still too recent to allow of her joining in these ceremonies. / She could, therefore, only hear from lady Arabella, what she would rather have seen, that the bride was completely outdone upon every occasion. The fair narrator’s laudable design of making her aunt happy tempted her to some small exaggerations. The Grecian model of beauty, which the form and face of Geraldine resembled, was more consonant to the public taste 168 than the round visage, uniform regularity of features, and auburn locks of the northern beauty. The figure of the latter was indeed more conspicuous; but being less correctly moulded by fashion, it seemed to yield in elegance to the polished symmetry of the ever-graceful countess. The lily and the rose were rivalled by Arabella’s complexion; yet lilies and roses may be bought at Warren’s, 169 which by candlelight look almost as well as nature; but what cosmetic can bestow that ‘pure / and eloquent blood’ which spoke in Geraldine’s face, and might almost justify the opinion of the poet, ‘that her body thought?’ 170
