Her dress, in addition, was calculated to make these striking features, and her handsome person still more conspicuous. It was of dark materials, and adjusted in a manner that attracted from the general idea of simplicity that prevailed in it, while, at the same time, it displayed to advantage the gracefulness of the wearer. As a head-dress, a dark veil or mantilla, hanged loosely from a high and valuable comb, down along the side of her face over her shoulders, and enhanced by the contrast her beautiful and clear complexion.
Nature in youth, especially when such youth has been weakened by no unphilosophical propensities, ever inclines to amendment. In Appadocca, especially, whose life-time had, up to that period, been spent in the practice of that strengthening discipline which consists in the happy combination of exercise for mind and body, it turned towards health with extraordinary vigour; so that the stranger, who but a few days ago had been as near death as mortal man could be, and during whose feverish paroxysms one would have imagined that the reason which regulated the form that still writhed in its madness, was about to take a last farewell of the machinery which it had up to that time animated and guided, now presented the clear eye, the earnest look, and the same stern resolution that usually compressed his lips. The only remaining indication of the fatigue which he had undergone, and of the subsequent illness, was the increased pallor of his complexion, and the slight attenuation of his body; in a word, it was in body and not in mind that Appadocca now showed signs of illness.
It was a day or two after this gratifying change had shown itself, when Appadocca and the beautiful daughter of the house were seated together in the large apartment which we have before described.
The stranger was sitting in one of the peculiar but luxurious chairs of cow-hide at one side of the wide window, and Feliciana at the other.
Politeness and gratitude, independently of a sense of duty, called forth the gallantry of Appadocca in entertaining the lady. He discoursed on a life in the wilds, on the marvels that nature can there continually display to the eyes of the wondering spectator, of the free and independent life of those who inhabited the “Llanos;” and from this high and general theme he descended to the particular beauties that surrounded the romantic abode of his host himself.
He spoke on. But his greatest and most graceful eloquence could not draw a word from his beautiful auditor, or even secure a silent nod. She sat with her head turned away towards the window, her eyes fixed on the ground, and wore an air of more than ordinary seriousness. She seemed entirely wrapped in a web of her own reflections.
Appadocca could not but remark this reverie. After having yielded several times to his habit of silence, and given way to his own abstracted moods, he would awake himself suddenly, and seeming to feel the embarrassment of the situation, would address the young lady again on some new and interesting topic. But it was in vain.
“Senora, I hope, is not ill?” he at last inquiringly observed.