Waverley, as we have elsewhere observed, possessed at times a
wonderful flow of rhetoric; and, on the present occasion, he touched
more than once the higher notes of feeling, and then again ran off in
a wild voluntary of fanciful mirth. He was supported and excited by
kindred spirits, who felt the same impulse of mood and time; and even
those of more cold and calculating habits were hurried along by the
torrent. Many ladies declined the dance, which still went forward, and,
under various pretences, joined the party to which the 'handsome young
Englishman' seemed to have attached himself. He was presented to
several of the first rank, and his manners, which for the present were
altogether free from the bashful restraint by which, in a moment of less
excitation, they were usually clouded, gave universal delight.
Flora Mac-Ivor appeared to be the only female present who regarded him
with a degree of coldness and reserve; yet even she could not suppress
a sort of wonder at talents which, in the course of their acquaintance,
she had never seen displayed with equal brilliancy and impressive
effect. I do not know whether she might not feel a momentary regret at
having taken so decisive a resolution upon the addresses of a lover, who
seemed fitted so well to fill a high place in the highest stations
of society.
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