[229]
air, warmed and enlivened by the blaze of a coal fire and wax candles.
We had never, any of us, met Lord Carlisle before; but the considerateness and cordiality of our reception obviated whatever embarrassment there might have been in this circumstance.
In a few moments after we were all seated, a servant announced the Duchess of Sutherland, and Lord Carlisle presented me. She is tall and stately, with a most noble bearing.
Her fair complexion, blonde hair, and full lips speak of Saxon blood.
The only person present not of the family connection was my quondam correspondent in America, Arthur Helps.
Somehow or other I had formed the impression from his writings that he was a venerable sage of very advanced years, who contemplated life as an aged hermit from the door of his cell.
Conceive my surprise to find a genial young gentleman of about twentyfive, who looked as if he might enjoy a joke as well as another man.
After the ladies left the table, the conversation turned on the Maine law, which seems to be considered over here as a phenomenon in legislation, and many of the gentlemen present inquired about it with great curiosity.
After the gentlemen rejoined us, the Duke and Duchess of Argyll came in, and Lord and Lady Blantyre.
These ladies are the daughters of the Duchess of Sutherland.
The Duchess of Argyll is of slight and fairy-like figure, with flaxen hair and blue eyes, answering well enough to the description of Annot Lyle in the Legend of Montrose.
Lady Blantyre was somewhat taller, of fuller figure, with a very brilliant
This text is part of:
Houghton, Mifflin and Company, The Riverside Press, Cambridge, 1889.
Tufts University provided support for entering this text.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.