keep her spotless, as he thought her, whatever the gossips had said.
After all, slander had no opening to attack one whose youth was
manifest; who owed no complexion to the wax-mask, the bismuth powder,
and the carmine; whose hair was real and fine and of a shade which no
dye could imitate; and whose movements, though in a society dance far
removed from the wild whirl of the monads seen on this same stage, had
the freedom of the bacchantes.

After all, the unworthiness of the object no more changes the quality of
love than that of the glass alters the banquet of wine.

Oh, to withdraw her from this turbulent career, for which surely she was
not inextricably destined, and let her be the bright but flawless
ornament of a happy home and a choice circle--if not the lady of
fashion, in case the student realized one of his fantastic dreams of
aimless ambition. The quiet learner felt an immense flame usurp the
place of his blood; he seemed gifted with the powers of the athletic
Duke of Munich, Christopher the Leaper, whose statue adorned the
proscenium, and like him, clearing the orchestra with a bound of twelve
feet, he would have grasped the girl wasting her graces of voice and
person on these boors, and carried her off to a more congenial sphere.

Obliged to repeat her song and the dance which filled the gap between
two verses, the charmer held the spectators in a spell even more firm
than that she had first imposed.

No one was conscious at the first that down the central aisle had come a
little party odd enough in its components and awe-inspiring in what
might be called its rear-guard to break even enchantment more potent.