Afghanistan and the Anglo-Russian Dispute | Page 9

feeling connected with self-love, misleads
me, when I say it would have been difficult to find four young people
more likely to attract the attention of a passer-by, than we four were, in
the fall of 1797. As for Rupert Hardinge, he resembled his mother, and
was singularly handsome in face, as well as graceful in movements. He
had a native gentility of air, of which he knew how to make the most,
and a readiness of tongue and a flow of spirits that rendered him an
agreeable, if not a very instructive companion. I was not ill-looking,
myself, though far from possessing the striking countenance of my
young associate. In manliness, strength and activity, however, I had
essentially the advantage over him, few youths of my age surpassing
me in masculine qualities of this nature, after I had passed my twelfth
year. My hair was a dark auburn, and it was the only thing about my
face, perhaps, that would cause a stranger to notice it; but this hung
about my temples and down my neck in rich ringlets, until frequent
applications of the scissors brought it into something like subjection. It
never lost its beauty entirely, and though now white as snow, it is still
admired. But Grace was the one of the party whose personal
appearance would be most likely to attract attention. Her face beamed
with sensibility and feeling, being one of those countenances on which
nature sometimes delights to impress the mingled radiance, sweetness,
truth and sentiment, that men ascribe to angels. Her hair was lighter
than mine; her eyes of a heavenly blue, all softness and tenderness; her
cheeks just of the tint of the palest of the coloured roses; and her smile
so full of gentleness and feeling, that, again and again, it has controlled
my ruder and more violent emotions, when they were fast getting the
mastery. In form, some persons might have thought Grace, in a slight
degree, too fragile, though her limbs would have been delicate models
for the study of a sculptor.
Lucy, too, had certainly great perfection, particularly in figure; though
in the crowd of beauty that has been so profusely lavished on the
youthful in this country, she would not have been at all remarked in a
large assembly of young American girls. Her face was pleasing
nevertheless; and there was a piquant contrast between the raven

blackness of her hair the deep blue of her eyes, and the dazzling
whiteness of her skin. Her colour, too, was high, and changeful with
her emotions. As for teeth, she had a set that one might have travelled
weeks to meet with their equals; and, though she seemed totally
unconscious of the advantage, she had a natural manner of showing
them, that would have made a far less interesting face altogether
agreeable. Her voice and laugh, too, when happy and free from care,
were joyousness itself.
It would be saying too much, perhaps, to assert that any human being
was ever totally indifferent to his or her personal appearance. Still, I do
not think either of our party, Rupert alone excepted, ever thought on the
subject, unless as it related to others, down to the period Of which I am
now writing. I knew, and saw, and felt that my sister was far more
beautiful than any of the young girls of her age and condition that I had
seen in her society; and I had pleasure and pride in the fact. I knew that
I resembled her in some respects, but I was never coxcomb enough to
imagine I had half her good-looks, even allowing for difference of sex.
My own conceit, so far as I then had any--plenty of it came, a year or
two later--but my own conceit, in 1797, rather ran in the direction of
my athletic properties, physical force, which was unusually great for
sixteen, and stature. As for Rupert, I would not have exchanged these
manly qualities for twenty times his good looks, and a thought of envy
never crossed my mind on the subject. I fancied it might be well
enough for a parson to be a little delicate, and a good deal handsome;
but for one who intended to knock about the world as I had it already in
contemplation to do, strength, health, vigour, courage and activity,
were much more to be desired than beauty.
Lucy I never thought of as handsome at all. I saw she was pleasing;
fancied she was even more so to me than to any one else; and I never
looked upon her sunny, cheerful and yet perfectly feminine face,
without a feeling of security and happiness. As for her honest eyes,
they invariably met my own with an open frankness that said, as plainly
as