Part 29 (2/2)

I shall flatter myself that I might have kept you if I had tried hard for it at first; but

Il pentirsi da sesto nulla giova.

No doubt you might have said with the old song,

I ne'er could any l.u.s.tre see In eyes that would not look on me.

But you scarcely gave me time to look on you before you were gone. You see, however, like our own Mirror of Knighthood, I make the best of my evil fate, and

Cheer myself up with ends of verse, And sayings of philosophers.

_Lord Curryfin._ I am glad to see you so merry; for even if your heart were more deeply touched by another than it ever could have been by me, I think I may say of you, in your own manner,

So light a heel Will never wear the everlasting flint.

I hope and I believe you will always trip joyously over the surface of the world. You are the personification of L'Allegro.

_Miss Gryll._ I do not know how that may be. But go now to the personification of La Penserosa. If you do not turn her into a brighter Allegro than I am, you may say I have no knowledge of woman's heart.

It was not long after this dialogue that Lord Curryfin found an opportunity of speaking to Miss Niphet alone. He said, 'I am charged with a duty, such as was sometimes imposed on knights in the old days of chivalry. A lady, who claims me as her captive by right, has ordered me to kneel at your feet, to obey your commands, and to wear your chains, if you please to impose them.'

_Miss Niphet._ To your kneeling I say, Rise; for your obedience, I have no commands; for chains, I have none to impose.

_Lord Curryfin._ You have imposed them, I wear them already, inextricably, indissolubly.

_Miss Niphet._ If I may say, with the witch in _Thalaba_,

Only she, Who knit his bonds, can set him free,

I am prepared to unbind the bonds. Rise my lord, rise.

_Lord Curryfin._ I will rise if you give me your hand to lift me up.

_Miss Niphet._. There it is. Now that it has helped you up, let it go.

_Lord Curryfin._ And do not call me my lord.

_Miss Niphet._ What shall I call you?

_Lord Curryfin._ Call me Richard, and let me call you Alice.

_Miss Niphet._. That is a familiarity only sanctioned by longer intimacy than ours has been.

_Lord Curryfin._ Or closer?

_Miss Niphet._ We have been very familiar friends during the brief term of our acquaintance. But let go my hand.

Lord Curryfin, I have set my heart on being allowed to call you Alice, and on your calling me Richard.

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