Cara

“ You’re eating candy far too much, my dear.
Cara.—
Oh! no, dear pa. [13]
King.—
Then you in love must be,
Those symptoms indicate a heart not free.
You love!!!
Cara.—
Ah, yes!
King (starting) .—
What!! Do I hear aright?
You love! (Aside.) Great guns! my income put to flight.
When this unfortunate result is told,
Good-bye to suitors, and to all their gold.
(Aloud.) Oh, daughter! daughter! this will never do.
(Fiercely.) Who is this creature that’s beloved by you?
Cara.—
Ah! yes, I love! ”

“ From the window she watched the fog swallow him up as he had watched Cara. She waited for his return at first as one deprived almost of breath by the terrible and painful beating of her heart. Full of the anguish of apprehension, she walked up and down her room and then listened, and yet no sound would come from the silent world except the fog-bell from the Point. Then that feeling of revolt that she had felt before stirred vaguely within her and grew in her heart. There flamed up in her the passionate revolt of a fine spirit that has stayed too long in bondage. ”

“ I think what it must suffer ’neath the green,
So scathed and ugly.
Hubert. Cara, do not put
Such hatred in your eyes; if the great lady
Who loves the king—;
Cara. Great ladies cannot love.
You must be poor and famished to be hungry. ”

“ I know you want to throw yourself into the water, but I will not suffer it, for you need a whole long life to make good the thoughts that have poisoned your youth. You must give up your whole strength to poor Cara, beside whose bed you will yet often see me, and take care that you need not tremble before my face, as you must to-day. Cara needs you, for her parents are broken down, and only through boundless self-sacrifice may you dare to hope for forgiveness. ”

“ Don’t turn out a sell.
(Eben. moves, yawns, opens his eyes and looks about in a dazed way.)
Quartette. (Cara., Sassy., King and Prof.)
He winks! he moves! he trembles!
Our prayers have worked the spell!
He lives! and he resembles
Our fondest ideal;
He lives! and he resembles
Our fondest ideal.
(Eben. rubs his eyes and looks about. Cara. goes down front.)
Cara.—
What is this—in my heart,
In my soul—that I feel
This spirit of love?
Is it true, is it real, [36]
This beating of my heart
To another heart’s beat?
Has my love come to life?
Is my lover complete?
And thou, candy, away!! ”

“ Caroline kissed her. "You're every bit as nice, darling, and much cleverer."
"I'm sharp, and amusing," she said. "Perhaps I'm rather too sharp. I shouldn't like people to be afraid of me because of my tongue. I'd much rather [Pg 189] be like you, and have everybody love me. Cara, when B gets married, you and I will be a lot to each other, won't we? I shall be quite grown up by the time I come home for good; I'm nearly grown up now. ”

“ Suitors.—
{ Again, boys. Put in, boys,
Cara. & K.—
{ Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. Ha, ha, ha, ha.
Suitors.—
{ And show her how we fling.
Cara. & K.—
{ How perfectly absurd.
Suitors.—
{ To right—to left—in front—
Cara. & K.—
{ How perfectly absurd.
Suitors.—
{ Behind—below—oh—oh—oh—oh—
Cara. & K.—
{ How perfectly absurd.
(All dance furiously, Cara. and King laughing. At end of music Suitors all get down on knees and wait.)
Cara. (sarcastically) .—
And is this all? Quite finished? Surely done?
Not overlooked a single charm—not one?
You all excel in something—so you say ”

“ But fold your hands and sigh—and copy me.
(Suitors form at back L. Music and bells. Enter Caramella and King, dancing, hand and hand.)
[10]
No. 5.
Cara.—
I have no village cart,
No pony phaeton;
But out with Pa I start,
And him I lay it on.
King.—
We run our own coupés,
Cara.—
Gig, landeau, coach and chaise,
King.—
Hack, cab, and jaunting car,
Cara.—
Trap and Victoria.
Chorus. (Cara. and King dance around stage.)
Suitors.—
Hi yar! Hi yar! Just see her run her Pa-ha-ha.
Hi yar! Hi yar! ”

“ Cara.—
So they appear.
I’m bored to death by suitors,—go away.
King.—
Just listen first to what they have to say,
They surely are entitled to be heard,
(Aside.) Besides, they’ve paid out money for a word.
Cara.—
Indeed. Well, let them talk, I’m all suspense;
Proceed, kind gentlemen, but utter sense.
(SUITORS all come down meekly and sing.) No. 6.
(Music.)
Suitors.—
Oh! Princess, we can talk and warble
In a most agreeable way, [11]
At tennis we are very prominent,
And also great at croquet. ”

“ Lotty knew herself to be beloved, therefore her jealousy of Doris knew no bounds. Every kind look, every unconscious little joke of Doris's was gall and wormwood to her. She had to help Doris adorn herself, and see how she [Pg 167] looked into the glass with beaming eyes, certain of victory, full of hope. She had to suffer that her adored Cara did all to make her sister appear in the best light to Albert. Many an evening in the park there ensued angry scenes in which Lotty broke forth into wild reproaches, and Albert made passionate love protestations. Lotty was proud ”

“ To her lover she seemed to bend beneath the burden of her brown hair, yet her slim figure had the strength and poise which come of fine physical inheritance and high spirit. Every gesture, every unstudied attitude, revealed the grace of the well born woman. ”

“ That slight girl, with her little feet, little hands, little face attractively overweighted by great coils of hair; with a rather large mouth, whose mere parting seemed to breathe upon you the fragrance of frankness and generosity, had the fastidious soul of an experienced woman. ”

“ A smile of pleasure lighted up the Stranger's face when his eye fell on Caroline, her neat feet shod in plum-colored prunella gaiters, and her white dress tossed by a breeze that would have been fatal to an ill-made woman, but which displayed her graceful form. ”

“ As she stood there before me in her dark worsted dress and coarse shawl, with her locks simply braided and her whole person undignified by art and ungraced by ornament, she seemed just by the power of her expression and the witchery of her manner, the loveliest woman I had ever beheld. ”

“ I have seen, Paul, more than you of this southern nature. The Italian girl of fifteen is a woman; an impassioned, sensitive, tender creature—yet still a woman; you are loving—if you love—a full-grown heart ”

“ And only she has hid her face away,
And yet I ween she loved him more than they,
And very fairly fashioned was her face.
Yet for Love's shame and sweet humility,
She dared not meet him with their queenlike grace. ”

“ I see him, shadow-like, a sad-eyed, blasé gentleman, who has been adored by all the beauties of fifteen seasons, and yet speaks of woman with a contemptuous sneer. Great, however, is love; and the vulgar little girl who talks slang will prove to him in our next volume that there is still one peerless beyond all others of her sex. ”

“ One may be a belle by means of money, a tongue, an eye, a foot, teeth, a laugh, or any other separate feature, or grace; though no woman was ever yet a belle, I believe, by means of the head, considered collectively. But why deal in description, when the thing itself confronts us? The young lady standing directly before us, is a belle of the most approved stamp and silvery tone. Is it not Miss Ring, Grace? ”

“ Do we give our love to a face, or to a temperament? I swear to you that I could not have known that woman's temperament more intimately if we had made our confidences in each other's arms. I knew everything of her, except the trifles which a stranger learns in the moment of being presented— her height, her complexion, her name, whether she was married or single. ”

“ Try all your Friends, and find out the best and nearest to your Heart, That done, be sure to kill him for my sake. This fail not to do, if you respect and Love (as you pretend.)
Clara.
’Tis as I fear’d, and what I know she most desires: Mischief, and Murder, are all her Sexes Practice, and Delight? Yet such is the Extravagancy of my Passion, I must obey the Mandate, thô to my certain Ruine: ’Tis strangely difficult, and does require Mature Deliberation. ”

“ As to her face it is not marvellously beautiful, still less regularly so, but it is of such love-like paleness, chased by such sunny gleams of joyous youth continually playing over her features, that one could not wish it changed even for a more regular beauty. ”

“ The young girl made me more a humble courtesy than a low one:—’twas one of those quiet, thankful sinkings, where the spirit bows itself down,—the body does no more than tell it. I never gave a girl a crown in my life which gave me half the pleasure. ”

“ What more natural, then, that the girl should draw, in her imagination, an ideal picture of her unknown defender? She represented him to herself as a tall, gloomy, pale-faced youth, who never smiled except when doing good, and his gentle look frequently followed her into her dreams. ”

“ O girls, we speak of Clara's coming down to the ground; we speak of seeing our way clear, and treading on solid ground; these are expressions of those whose feet only would walk upon the ground, while their hearts and eyes are on a level with those about them, who have never known how hard to the forehead is the ground, when all we love lie beneath it; how one hides her face in terror from the vacant air, finding her only refuge in the earth, where lies all her grief. But I do not wish to bring my dark robe among your gay dresses.”
“O Miss Revere!” ”

“ First wean’d from oversight, must learn to choose.
Then, like a tottering child it yearns to cling
To one whose greater power can for it act.
Its moods determine that to which they cling.
Some girls are giddy:—they embrace a lover.
And some are gloomy:—they beset a priest. ”

“ She fancies herself the beautiful heroine of the story, rich, accomplished, and, romantically, wretched. She, too, begins to look about for the model lover who lays his hand upon his heart, lifts his tearful face toward heaven, and says pretty things. ”

“ With regard to what you tell me of yourself, I can see you, my poor Miranda, in my mind’s eye, and I hasten to assure you that, whether you are right or wrong, you will not regret taking yourself in hand in the beauty sense. ”

“ I know well the feelings that are yours, though you perhaps think I do not, by the involuntary sigh you heard, and I can sympathise with them, though lately you have refused to seek my sympathy. Bright as are your anticipations, reality for a time will be still brighter. Brilliant will be the scenes of enchantment in which you will mingle,—brilliant indeed, for you are beautiful, my Caroline—and admiration on all sides will be your own. ”

“ His ardour fanned her own love into a flame that made her toss about the bed all night, and ache with longing in the pale dawn when she dressed. A lady! A lady in England! Oh, if he would only ask her to be his wife. Otherwise she couldn't be a lady. ”

“ Will the trifles that you have purchased afford you such heart-felt delight, Caroline?
Selfish people save, to gratify their own caprices and appetites; the benevolent curb both, to give scope to the nobler feelings of the human heart. ”

“ They all came to her court, as is the business of young fellows, to tell her what love is, and she listened with a noble frankness, having, indeed, the friendliest face for all engaged in this pursuit that can ever have sat on woman. ”

“ Charis, Grace herself, bestows Charm.it, blending perfect though inexplicable beauty of thought with perfect though often suggested beauty of feeling. To these her airy sprites minister with melody and fragrance, with unexpectedness and sweet surprises, freedom in and out of law, naïveté", aristocratic poise, lightness, pathos, rapture,—all gifts that serve to consecrate the magic touch. However skilled the singer, quality and charm are inborn. ”

“ What their mirrors say to each of them is, A dear face, not classically perfect but abounding in that changing charm which is the best type of English womanhood; here is a woman who has seen and felt far more than her reticent nature readily betrays ”

“ Beauty, particularly in a woman, attracted me—it was a weakness, but still I acknowledge its power. The blue of Clara’s eyes was so deep, so dark—I can see their melting, bewitching softness of expression even now, though many, many years have passed away, and those eyes are closed in death. ”

“ Sara: And can I take the red ink up too?
That reminded the judge. She did not want Sara to think or talk about terrible or ugly things. A nice-minded little girl would not even wish to make a picture of a poor gentleman with a nasty wound in his head. She would rather think about beautiful things. There were plenty of beautiful things all around us. ”

“ As she stood before him beautifully strong and pure and fresh and clean in mind and heart and body, her sweet personality, the spirit of her complete womanhood swept to him—appealing, calling, exhilarating, invigorating, strengthening, as he had often felt the early air of the sun-filled morning sweeping over mountain and mesa and desert plain. ”

“ But Nature was asserting herself in the person of the young Bella. The agony of the stretching was fast being swallowed up in the intense sensations of pleasure produced by the vigorous weapon of the holy man, and it was not long before the low moans and sobs of the pretty child became mingled with expressions, half choked in the depth of her feelings, expressive of delight. ”