I was particularly impressed by their
dignity, affability, and readiness to oblige yourself. But, my dear
sir, it is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in
princes".
CHAPTER XX.
MR. LANSDOWNE SUBMITS TO THE INEVITABLE.
In the meanwhile, a change had come upon John Lansdowne. Only a few
weeks ago, he was a careless youth, of keen and vigorous intellectual
powers, satiated with books and tired of college walls, with the boy
spirit in the ascendant within him. His eye was wide open and
observant, and his ringing laugh was so merry, that it brought an
involuntary smile upon any one who might chance to hear its rich
peals. His talk was rapid, gay, and brilliant, with but the slightest
dash of sentiment, and his manner frank and fearless.
But now his bearing had become quiet and dignified; his conversation
was more thoughtful and deep-flowing, less dashing and free; he spoke
in a lower key; his laugh was less loud but far sweeter and more
thrilling; his eyes had grown larger, darker, deeper, and sometimes
they were shadowed with a soft and tender mist, not wont to overspread
them before. The angel of Love had touched him, and opened a new and
living spring in his heart. Boiling and bubbling in its hidden recess,
an ethereal vapor mounted up and mantled those blazing orbs in a dim
and dreamy veil. A charmed wand had touched every sense, every power
of his being, and held him fast in a rapturous thrall, from which he
did not wish to be released.
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