of light to escape. Guided by this, he quickly gained, after applying
his eye to the aperture, a distinct view of the couple within, and was
enabled, at the same time, to catch every word of their variously
modulated conversation. They were seated at different sides of a
light-stand, on which a candle was burning, she assiduously engaged,
to all appearance, with her needle on some light sewing work, and he
diligently, with his penknife, on a pine chip, which he was essaying
to shape into a human profile, that of his mistress, it might be
surmised from the sly glances with which he seemed occasionally to
scan her features. Though now dressed in his smartest fustian, he yet
appeared awkward and ill at ease; while the timid and hesitating air,
with which he seemed to regard his fair companion, indicated much
conscious uncertainty respecting the place he might hold in her
affections. She, on the contrary, seemed quite self-possessed, and
wore the air of one not particularly solicitous about pleasing, which
gave her as much advantage over him in her manner as she obviously
possessed in her person; for, besides a good form and a wholesome
roseate bloom, she had one of those polyglot countenances which seem
almost to supersede the necessity of speaking--a trait she very
prettily exhibited while listening to the forced hints and innuendoes
of her lover's conversation, as she occasionally lifted her head, now
with a blush, now with a smile, and now with a frown, that caused his
eyes to drop to the floor as quick as those of a rebuked schoolboy.
Thus far, she had not opened her lips; but now, as her suitor, turning
in his chair, brought a hitherto shaded arm into view, and displayed
upon his sleeve a common brass pin, (usually denominated in those days
the Canada pin, as this article, then almost excluded from the toilet
by the war, rarely found its way into this section except through the
intercourse of the tories with that province,) her attention was
suddenly excited; and turning a sharp and searching look upon him,