all means, and just as many smiles and compliments as he can stand, or
you can afford to squander; for you are worse than a mermaid, Miss Harz,
for fascination, all the gentlemen say so; and, as to Captain
Falconer--"

"They are malignants," I rejoined, ignoring purposely the last clause of
the sentence which I had interrupted; "and you are perfidious to hear
them slander me so. I hate fascinating people; they always make my flesh
crawl like serpents. The few I have known have been so very base." "Good
specimens of '_thorough_ bass,'" she interpolated, laughing.--"I am sure
I am glad I have no attributes of fascination, if a strange old work I
met with at Beauseincourt may be considered responsible. Did you ever
see it, Miss Lamarque, you who see every thing? Hieronymus Frascatorius
tells of certain families in Crete who fascinated by praising, and to
avert this evil influence some charm was used consisting of a magic
word (I suppose this was typical of humility, though related as
literal). This _naïveté_ on the part of the old chronicler was simply
_impayable_, as Major Favraud would say, with his characteristic shrug.
One _Varius_ related (you see my theme has full possession of me, and
the book is a collation of facts on the subject of fascination of all
kinds, even down to that of the serpent) that a friend of his saw a
fascinator with a look break in two a precious gem in the hands of a
lapidary--typical this, I suppose, of some fond, foolish, female heart.
Fire, according to this author, represents the quality of fascination;
and toads and moths are subject to its influence, as well as some higher
animals--deer, for instance, who are hunted successfully with torches;
and he relates, further, that in Abyssinia artificers of pottery and
iron are thus fearfully endowed, and are consequently forbidden to join
in the sacred rites of religion, as fire is their chief agent. Isn't
this a strange, quaint volume, to set before a king? and how do you like