The locality has oft-times much to do with love.
The lady, in all her glowing beauty, seemed even more lovely amidst her own shadowy groves, with the time-honoured towers of her ancestors looking majestic in the distance. The perfume from the sweetly-scented shrubs and flowrets, the whisper of the soft breeze through the luxuriant trees, the cooing of the wood-pigeons in the distant plantation, the hum of the bees, and the plash of the fountain, each and all were felt by one who was so prone to feel.
And he himself who walked beside that beautiful girl, thus surrounded by all the appliances of rank and station, how did he appear in her eyes in his lowly suit? Had he nothing to recommend him, and did he seem unfitted for the companionship of one so much more elevated in station? Did he appear to feel himself out of place or abashed by all he saw? We think not. The lady looked upon that face of youthful beauty; the soft curly hair even then thin upon the high forehead, the features so beautifully formed and so expressive; that eye so soft, and yet at times so full of fire, and whose glance was like the lightning's flash; the small beautifully-formed and downy moustache upon the upper lip; and all this, added to a figure which for grace and symmetry might have vied with a Grecian statue. And as she looked and listened to his sweet and honied sentences, she felt that all around would darken down to naked waste without his society. The conversation of him who but a few days before she would have passed without perhaps deigning to look upon, seemed to have opened a new world to her. Such is love,—that most fantastic of passions, which is said to be but once felt, and once felt never forgotten.
The affections of women are perhaps easier won than those of men. They are commonly more disinterested, and "prize not quality of dirty lands." Seldom do we find that women display such open heartlessness, such acts of infidelity, as men.
"For however we do praise ourselves,
Our fancies are more giddy and infirm,
More longing, wavering, sooner lost and won,
Than woman's are."
That the fair Charlotte should, on better knowledge, more fully appreciate the merits of her companion, we of latter days, who imagine the man from his works alone, can hardly wonder at; and the peculiarities of the position of the lovers made her, falling desperately in love, the less extraordinary. Had the youth of inferior degree presumed upon the favourable impression he could not help seeing he had made, the pride of the lady might have better befriended her. But there was ever a certain reserve about him, when matters seemed verging towards their issue, which perplexed and somewhat piqued her.
The expression of his eyes, when occasionally she detected him gazing upon her, was hardly to be mistaken, but then his respectful reserve would as suddenly return.
This was, however, a state of things which could not last, and perhaps, of all men, the ardent, the impassioned Shakespeare, in his early youth, was the most unlikely person to withstand such a strife as he was exposed to, and come off victorious, however honour, and friendship, and pride, might come to his aid. The knowledge that he was beloved by the fair creature beside him, the locality, the opportunity afforded him of expressing his own feelings, altogether, even in this his second visit, nearly made shipwreck of all his good intentions, and once or twice he was about to seize the hand of the fair Charlotte, and after owning the ardour of his affection, fly from the spot for ever.
He, however, during this visit did manage to contain and conceal his passion; nay, he even performed the office of friendship which had been entrusted to him, and as he spoke of the fair lady's betrothed husband, he praised him for those good qualities he had already found him to possess, and spoke of him as one worthy the love and regard of any woman, however excellent and high in station. This was a theme, however, which he perceived was somewhat unwelcome, and the beauty grew wayward as he pursued it. With girlish tact she beat him from his theme, as often as he renewed it, and sought to lure him to other subjects more congenial to her thoughts whilst in his society. Nay, perhaps had he studied how best to advance his own suit to her he could not have hit upon a way more likely to succeed.
The fair Charlotte was piqued at what she considered his insensibility, and without considering what she did, she almost let him understand that it would have been much more grateful to her to have heard the speaker's own merits extolled than those of Master Arderne.