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The Vampyre; a Tale by John William Polidori
page 18 of 41 (43%)
apparently, ashamed of chronicling the deeds of freemen only before
slaves, had hidden themselves beneath the sheltering soil or many
coloured lichen. Under the same roof as himself, existed a being, so
beautiful and delicate, that she might have formed the model for a
painter, wishing; to pourtray oil canvass the promised hope of the
faithful in Mahomet's paradise, save that her eyes spoke too much mind
for any one to think she could belong to those who had no souls. As
she danced upon the plain, or tripped along the mountain's side, one
would have thought the gazelle a poor type of her beauties; for who
would have exchanged her eye, apparently the eye of animated nature,
for that sleepy luxurious look of the animal suited but to the taste
of an epicure. The light step of Ianthe often accompanied Aubrey in
his search after antiquities, and often would the unconscious girl,
engaged in the pursuit of a Kashmere butterfly, show the whole beauty
of her form, floating as it were upon the wind, to the eager gaze of
him, who forgot the letters he had just decyphered upon an almost
effaced tablet, in tho contemplation of her sylph-like figure. Often
would her tresses falling, as she flitted around, exhibit in the sun's
ray such delicately brilliant and swiftly fading hues, its might well
excuse the forgetfulness of the antiquary, who let escape from his
mind the very object he had before thought of vital importance to the
proper interpretation of a passage in Pausanias. But why attempt to
describe charms which all feel, but none can appreciate?---It was
innocence, youth, and beauty, unaffected by crowded drawing-rooms and
stifling- balls. Whilst he drew those remains of which lie wished to
preserve a memorial for his future hours, she would stand by, and
watch the magic effects of his pencil, in tracing the scenes of her
native place; she would then describe to him the circling dance upon
the open plain, would paint, to him in all the glowing colours of
youthful memory, the marriage pomp she remembered viewing in her
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