She is taller, indeed, and her manner more
formed; but many people think Miss Bradwardine's more natural; and she
is certainly much younger. I should think Flora is two years older than
I am--I will look at them particularly this evening.'
And with this resolution Waverley went to drink tea (as the fashion was
Sixty Years since) at the house of a lady of quality attached to the
cause of the Chevalier, where he found, as he expected, both the ladies.
All rose as he entered, but Flora immediately resumed her place, and
the conversation in which she was engaged. Rose, on the contrary, almost
imperceptibly, made a little way in the crowded circle for his advancing
the corner of a chair. 'Her manner, upon the whole, is most engaging,'
said Waverley to himself.
A dispute occurred whether the Gaelic or Italian language was most
liquid, and best adapted for poetry; the opinion for the Gaelic, which
probably might not have found supporters elsewhere, was here fiercely
defended by seven Highland ladies, who talked at the top of their lungs,
and screamed the company deaf, with examples of Celtic EUPHONIA. Flora,
observing the Lowland ladies sneer at the comparison, produced some
reasons to show that it was not altogether so absurd; but Rose, when
asked for her opinion, gave it with animation in praise of Italian,
which she had studied with Waverley's assistance.
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