A Sicilian Romance | Page 3

only
by a short gallery. This gallery opened into another, long and winding,
which led to the grand staircase, terminating in the north hall, with
which the chief apartments of the north side of the edifice
communicated.
Madame de Menon's apartment opened into both galleries. It was in
one of these rooms that she usually spent the mornings, occupied in the
improvement of her young charge. The windows looked towards the
sea, and the room was light and pleasant. It was their custom to dine in
one of the lower apartments, and at table they were always joined by a

dependant of the marquis's, who had resided many years in the castle,
and who instructed the young ladies in the Latin tongue, and in
geography. During the fine evenings of summer, this little party
frequently supped in a pavilion, which was built on an eminence in the
woods belonging to the castle. From this spot the eye had an almost
boundless range of sea and land. It commanded the straits of Messina,
with the opposite shores of Calabria, and a great extent of the wild and
picturesque scenery of Sicily. Mount Etna, crowned with eternal snows,
and shooting from among the clouds, formed a grand and sublime
picture in the background of the scene. The city of Palermo was also
distinguishable; and Julia, as she gazed on its glittering spires; would
endeavour in imagination to depicture its beauties, while she secretly
sighed for a view of that world, from which she had hitherto been
secluded by the mean jealousy of the marchioness, upon whose mind
the dread of rival beauty operated strongly to the prejudice of Emilia
and Julia. She employed all her influence over the marquis to detain
them in retirement; and, though Emilia was now twenty, and her sister
eighteen, they had never passed the boundaries of their father's
domains.
Vanity often produces unreasonable alarm; but the marchioness had in
this instance just grounds for apprehension; the beauty of her lord's
daughters has seldom been exceeded. The person of Emilia was finely
proportioned. Her complexion was fair, her hair flaxen, and her dark
blue eyes were full of sweet expression. Her manners were dignified
and elegant, and in her air was a feminine softness, a tender timidity
which irresistibly attracted the heart of the beholder. The figure of Julia
was light and graceful--her step was airy--her mien animated, and her
smile enchanting. Her eyes were dark, and full of fire, but tempered
with modest sweetness. Her features were finely turned--every laughing
grace played round her mouth, and her countenance quickly discovered
all the various emotions of her soul. The dark auburn hair, which curled
in beautiful profusion in her neck, gave a finishing charm to her
appearance.
Thus lovely, and thus veiled in obscurity, were the daughters of the
noble Mazzini. But they were happy, for they knew not enough of the

world seriously to regret the want of its enjoyments, though Julia would
sometimes sigh for the airy image which her fancies painted, and a
painful curiosity would arise concerning the busy scenes from which
she was excluded. A return to her customary amusements, however,
would chase the ideal image from her mind, and restore her usual
happy complacency. Books, music, and painting, divided the hours of
her leisure, and many beautiful summer-evenings were spent in the
pavilion, where the refined conversation of madame, the poetry of
Tasso, the lute of Julia, and the friendship of Emilia, combined to form
a species of happiness, such as elevated and highly susceptible minds
are alone capable of receiving or communicating. Madame understood
and practised all the graces of conversation, and her young pupils
perceived its value, and caught the spirit of its character.
Conversation may be divided into two classes--the familiar and the
sentimental. It is the province of the familiar, to diffuse cheerfulness
and ease--to open the heart of man to man, and to beam a temperate
sunshine upon the mind.--Nature and art must conspire to render us
susceptible of the charms, and to qualify us for the practice of the
second class of conversation, here termed sentimental, and in which
Madame de Menon particularly excelled. To good sense, lively feeling,
and natural delicacy of taste, must be united an expansion of mind, and
a refinement of thought, which is the result of high cultivation. To
render this sort of conversation irresistibly attractive, a knowledge of
the world is requisite, and that enchanting case, that elegance of manner,
which is to be acquired only by frequenting the higher circles of
polished life. In sentimental conversation, subjects interesting to the
heart, and to the imagination, are brought forward; they are discussed in
a kind of sportive way, with animation and refinement, and are never
continued longer than politeness allows. Here fancy