Blanche

“ But then Blanche, with her long dreamy eyes, loving mouth, and general expression of meekness and devotion, was in her way quite as bewitching. As for poor Violet, she was almost plain: it was only those lustrous eyes, so unlike the eyes of ordinary mortals, which redeemed her thin sallow face. If plain, however, it has already great energy, great character, and a strange mixture of the most womanly caressing gentleness, with haughtiness and wilfulness that are quite startling. Those who remember her as a lovely child, prophesy that she will become a splendid woman. ”

“ Right at the feet of Blanche it fell; and in a moment two green leaves shot upward, and between them a spotless lily, which hung its head with modest grace.
Victor gazed at the perfect flower in wonder, and before he knew it said aloud: “Ah, how like Blanche!”
The Queen herself broke it from the stem, and gave it to the maiden, saying:
“Take it! It is my choicest gift. Till it fades (which will never be) , love will be thine; and in time to come it will have power to open the strongest locks, and swing back the heaviest doors. ”

“ Listen, Blanche! I saw you and loved you; that love has become a passion. My life is yours, your fate is mine; happiness or death, I will share either with you; no human power can separate us, and if I quitted you, I have only to cry 'Vive le roi!' and your prison gates will reopen, and we will come out no more except together. Death upon the same scaffold, that will be enough for me. ”

“ The lady Blanche, regardless of all her lovers’ fears,
To the Ursuline convent hastens, and long the abbess hears.
“O Blanche, my child, repent ye of the courtly life ye lead.”
Blanche looked on a rosebud, and little seem’d to heed.
She looked on the rosebud, she looked round and thought
On all her heart had whisper’d, and all the Nun had taught.
“I am worshipped by lovers, and brightly shines my fame,
All Christendom resoundeth the noble Blanche’s name. 120
Nor shall I quickly wither like the rosebud from the tree,
My queen-like graces shining when my beauty’s gone from me. ”

“ He returned, but it was to watch over his beloved; and on his return, what was his horror to hear of the situation into which her wretched husband had precipitated her!
Blanche was embarrassed, yet delighted. From childhood she had known him, and loved him almost as a father; and to her old affection there was now added, the unconscious flattery of her knowledge of his love for her. No woman is ever insensible to such flattery; the man who loves her, though hopelessly, is always interesting in her eyes. Blanche was eminently a woman. ”

“ If lusty Love should go in quest of beauty,
Where should he find it but in Lady Blanche?
She is very fair, with a skin of dazzling loveliness, long dreamy eyes, always moist with emotion, an exquisite smile, a low soft voice—"an excellent thing in woman"—and a wondrous head of hair, which has that bright golden hue which Italians prize so highly—indeed, Firenzuola says, "che de' capelli il proprio e vero colore è esser biondi."
We have all but declared our passion. ”

“ Yes, Blanche, it is perfectly true! If those large, serious black eyes took a fierce light instead of a tender; if that nose, which seemed then undecided whether to be straight or to be aquiline, arched off in the latter direction, and assumed the martial, Roman, and imperative character of Roland’s manly proboscis; if that face, in childhood too thin, left the blushes of youth to take refuge on two salient peaks by the temples (Cumberland air, too, is famous for the growth of the cheekbone!) ”

“ Our Blanche never denied a request of yours, Armand, nor will we who loved her so dearly do so. (Exit slowly and sorrowfully, followed by all the maidens. Arm
(after gazing awhile on Blanche.) Oh! Blanche! my own - though lost - still, still my own! A little while I yet may gaze on thee, And in the treasury of my soul may store The memory of each stiff'ning lineament Where beauty lingers still! It cannot be! Shall those soft eyes no more look into mine, Nor veil themselves when with too bold a joy I gazed within their azure depths? shall love, " With its aurora, tint thy cheek no more? ”

“ Pisistratus.—“Tell my father that,—it will please him; there is more philosophy in it than you are aware of, Blanche. There are wise men who have thought the whole world, its ‘pride, pomp, and circumstance,’ only a phantom image,—a picture in the crystal.”
Blanche.—“And I shall see you,—see us both, as we are sitting here; and that star which has just risen yonder,—see it all in my crystal, when you are gone!—gone, cousin!” (And Blanche’s head drooped.) ”

“ You knew only that you waited an hour for her at the corner so that you might say “Hello, Blanche!” You knew only that to walk half a block with her more than repaid you for missing an afternoon in the woods or at the swimming-hole; that you were held by the other boys in scorn and contumely; that everything in the universe was upside down and inside out; that you suffered, yet were glad, that love was torment, yet ecstatic bliss. ”

“ As thou hast lived—my duteous, holy Blanche!
In trusting and serene submissiveness,
Humble, yet full of Heaven.
Blanche, (rising.) Now is there strength
Infused through all my spirit.—I can rise
And say, "Thy will be done!" ”

“ One touch of this magic wand.’”
Blanche looked up to thank the Queen; but no words came—only tears.
“I see a wish in thine eyes,” said Fontana.
“It is for Victor,” faltered Blanche, at last; “he wishes to be rich and great.”
The Queen looked grave.
“Shall I make him one of the great men of the earth, little Blanche? Then he may one day go to the ends of the world, and forget thee.”
Blanche only smiled, and Victor’s cheek flushed.
“I shall be a great man,” said he—“perhaps a prince; but where I go Blanche shall go: she will be my wife.”
“That is well,” said the Queen. ”

“ Blanche. No, but I'm not strong enough to fight out an unhappy life for the sake of setting an example to other women—women who don't want the example set!
Ruth. Blanche, I counted on you to be strong, to be big—
Blanche. [With a voice full of emotion.] But I love Ned Warden. He loves me—life stretches out long before us. Dick has disgraced us all. I don't love him—should I give my happiness and Mr. Warden's happiness for him?
Mrs. Hunter. Absurd! We all have a right to happiness if we can get it. I have chosen; let Blanche follow my example. ”

“ Blanche's return to consciousness was unhappily also a return to that fierce sorrow which nothing but time could assuage. She was only induced to live by the reflection that her child needed her care. But what a prospect was it for her! How could she ever smile again! How could she ever cease to weep for her kind, affectionate, erring, but beloved Cecil!
It is the intensity of all passion which makes us think it must be eternal; and it is this very intensity which makes it so short-lived. In a few months Blanche occasionally smiled ”

“ When we look at Blanche the woman, we are confronted with a like difficulty. Shall we say she was a saint? Her son, the son whom she bore, whom she reared with unexampled care, whom she watched over all her life, has been called a saint, and there is no one to say him nay. Shall we say that the mother of a saint is, ex officio, or even by courtesy, also a saint? We cannot claim sanctity for Queen Blanche: there was in her a touch of the temper of her grand-mother, Eleanor of Guienne of wicked memory, or mayhap a trace of the Plantagenet. ”

“ During this conversation between the lovers, another pair of undeclared lovers were standing on the steps of the terrace, "talking of lovely things that conquer death," and yielding themselves up to the luxury of a tête-à-tête, wherein glances were more eloquent than tongues, and hearts fluttered like new-caught birds, at the most seemingly insignificant phrase.
These were Cecil and Blanche. I call them undeclared lovers, because not only were they ignorant of each other's feelings, but ignorant also of their own. Blanche's love had been of gradual growth. ”

“ Little girls no longer,—young ladies now; for the youngest, Blanche, was not far from her fifteenth birthday. Margaret—now a young woman of four-and-twenty, and only not married because her betrothed was serving with the army of occupation in the Netherlands—was very busily spinning; Lucrece—a graceful maiden of twenty-two, not strictly handsome, but possessed of an indescribable fascination which charmed all who saw her—sat with her eyes bent down on her embroidery; Clare—seventeen, gentle, and unobtrusive—was engaged in plain sewing; and Blanche,—well, what was Blanche doing? ”

“ Blanche of Verceil returned. "Against whom can they be written if not against the Queen, against the Cardinal, against the court, and against the maids of honor of the Queen's 'Flying Squadron'? It is all of us who are the butts of the satirists."
"Those vicious people treat us with scant courtesy," exclaimed the black-haired Clorinde of Vaucernay. "But, at any rate, we are sung in superb and royal company. By Venus and Cupid, we should feel proud."
"Come, Blanche, read us the verses," Diana of Sauveterre suggested. "The Queen may send for us any moment before she retires." ”

“ In her exceeding beauty and blameless reputation; her love for her husband, and strong domestic affections; her pride of birth and rank; her feminine gentleness of deportment; her firmness of temper; her religious bigotry; her love of absolute power, and her upright and conscientious administration of it, Blanche greatly resembled Maria Theresa of Austria. She was, however, of a more cold and calculating nature; and in proportion as she was less amiable as a woman, did she rule more happily for herself and others. ”

“ Blanche did not reply.
“Blanche never thinks people that she likes, plain,” said Stasy.
“I beg your pardon,” said Blanche, “I’m not so silly. But the word doesn’t seem to me to suit Miss Milward, she has such wonderful eyes.”
“Yes indeed,” agreed Archie, almost too evidently eager to endorse whatever Blanche said. “I quite agree with you. They are really beautiful eyes, because there’s no sham about them. She is as good as they would lead you to believe.”
Again the same bright smile of approval came over Blanche’s face, and Mr Dunstan felt himself rewarded. ”

“ Blanche regarded without any feelings of jealousy the fairy's gift to her sister. Her only thoughts were concerning the pleasures she anticipated in being a queen. All at once she heard a huntsman's horn, and going to the door to see the party pass, she appeared so beautiful to the King that he resolved to marry her, and did so accordingly. Blanche, when she was become a queen, said to her sister Vermilion: "I do not wish that you should marry a farmer; come to court with me, sister; I will procure you a great lord for your husband." ”

“ And Blanche, at that self-same moment, had resolved to keep watch on her own heart narrowly, and to observe her sister's bearing toward George Delawarr, that in case she should perceive her favoring his suit, she might at once crush down the germ of rising passion, and sacrifice her own to her dear sister's happiness.
Alas! Blanche! Alas! Agnes! ”

“ It was still dusk, though the misty blue-grey of the tree-tops was imperceptibly changing to a more living hue, and the sky, stained a deep rust colour, showed a molten whiteness where it touched the world's rim. He unknowingly gripped Blanche's hand till she nearly cried out; except as something that made beauty more beautiful he hardly knew she was there. ”

“ The more she thought of the case, the more she pitied Blanche,—the more she realized what a tragedy in the poor little woman's life it meant. And she really had been to blame, she kept saying to herself. But for her interference, Blanche would have gone on with her diving, that other performer would not have come to the Hippodrome, and all of Blanche's agony of jealousy and neglect would have been avoided. ”

“ Fairy music has almost passed away from the earth; but those who hear it are strangely moved, and have dreams of beautiful things which have been, and may be again.
“It makes me think of the days of long ago when there was no sin,” whispered Blanche.
“It makes me long to be a hero,” answered Victor with a sparkling eye.
All the while the pearly boat was drifting toward the youth and maiden; and, when it had touched the shore the Queen stepped out upon the land as lightly as if she had been made entirely of dewdrops.
“I am Fontana,” said she: “and is this Blanche?” ”

“ To go back to Blanche. She opened out an indignant tale to me, when I got home just now and found her there, of what she had heard in Holles Street. 'Serve you right, my dear,' I said to her: 'a wife has no business to be looking at her husband through a telescope. If a man chose to fill his rooms with wild tigers, it would not be his wife's province to complain, provided he kept her out of reach of their claws.' 'But what am I to do?' cried Blanche. ”

“ She laid her soft hand upon the maiden’s shoulder; and Blanche thought she would like to die then and there, so full was she of joy.
“I have heard of thy good heart, my maiden: now what would please thee most?” said the queen.
Blanche bowed her head, and dared not speak.
[Pg 103] Queen Fontana smiled: when she smiled it was as if a soft cloud had slid away from the moon, revealing a beautiful light.
“Say pearls and diamonds,” said Victor in her ear.
“I don’t know,” whispered Blanche: “they are not the best things.”
“No,” said the queen kindly: “pearls and diamonds are not the best things.” ”

“ Blanche, you were wrong the first; rude words are as bad as harsh blows, for our words are as blows on the hearts of our friends; and what can be worse than to wound a friend's heart? Kate, you too have been much to blame; you ought to rule your mind, and curb it, when it is prone to fly out in rough acts: you know you can rule your thoughts as well as your limbs; you would not strike me, were I to fret you more than Blanche did. ”