One evening Albion was invited to the house of Earl Cruachan, where was a large party assembled. Among the guests was one lady apparently about twenty-five or twenty-six years of age. In figure she was very tall, and both it and her face were of a perfectly Roman cast. Her features were regularly and finely formed, her full and brilliant eyes jetty black, as were the luxuriant tresses of her richly-curled hair. Her dark glowing complexion was set off by a robe of crimson velvet trimmed with ermine, and a nodding plume of black ostrich feathers added to the imposing dignity of her appearance.
Albion, notwithstanding her unusual comeliness, hardly noticed her till Earl Cruachan rose and introduced her to him as the Lady Zelvia Ellrington.
She was the most learned and noted woman in Glass Town, and he was pleased with this opportunity of seeing her.
For some time she entertained him with a discourse of the most lively eloquence, and indeed Madame de Staël herself could not have gone beyond Lady Zelvia in the conversational talent; and on this occasion she exerted herself to the utmost, as she was in the presence of so distinguished a man, and one whom she seemed ambitious to please.
At length one of the guests asked her to favour the company with a song and tune on the grand piano. At first she refused, but on Albion seconding the request rose, and taking from the drawing-room table a small volume of poems opened it at one by the Marquis of Tagus. She then set it to a fine air and sang as follows, while she skilfully accompanied her voice upon the instrument:—
I think of thee when the moonbeams play
On the placid water’s face;
For thus thy blue eyes’ lustrous ray
Shone with resembling grace.
I think of thee when the snowy swan
Glides calmly down the stream;
Its plumes the breezes scarcely fan,
Awed by their radiant gleam.
For thus I’ve seen the loud winds hush
To pass thy beauty by,
With soft caress and playful rush
’Mid thy bright tresses fly.
And I have seen the wild birds sail
In rings thy head above,
While thou hast stood like lily pale
Unknowing of their love.
Oh! for the day when once again
Mine eyes shall gaze on thee;
But an ocean vast, a sounding main,
An ever howling sea,
Roll on between
With their billows green,
High tost tempestuously.
This song had been composed by Albion soon after his arrival at the Glass Town. The person addressed was Marina. The full rich tones of Lady Zelvia’s voice did ample justice to the subject, and he expressed his sense of the honour she had done him in appropriate terms.
When she had finished the company departed, for it was then rather late.
CHAPTER VI
THE SPIRIT OF MARINA
As Albion pursued his way homewards alone he began insensibly to meditate on the majestic charms of Lady Zelvia Ellrington, and to compare them with the gentler ones of Marina Angus. At first he could hardly tell which to give the preference to, for though he still almost idolised Marina, yet an absence of four years had considerably deadened his remembrance of her person.