"Helen," said she, "what do you think Seymour says? He says, that he has now found that you are no longer a child."
"Indeed!" replied I, blushing, but in a tone of pique: "and since when? That is a discovery which I have long made."
"And since when have you yourself made it, dear Helen?" said he, with that saucy smile of his which you have often said was irresistible.
"These four years, at least," I answered, trying to avoid his eyes.
"Do not fib, Helen," was his impertinent reply.
"You make Helen blush, my dear son."
"So much the better; she never looks so beautiful as when she blushes, and I dare say some little time hence, we shall have some English Priam exclaiming of this modern Helen—
'No wonder, Britons, that such heavenly charms
For ten long years have set the world in arms!'
While I shall sit and sing—
'Ah, Chloris! could I now but sit
As unconcern'd as when
Thy infant beauty could beget
Nor happiness nor pain!'"