Opposite to the window hung two
life-sized portraits of a lady and an officer. The lady wore a
Spanish costume with a mantilla, the gentleman a gorgeously
embroidered general's uniform, with a quantity of stars and orders,
and the ribbon of the Grand Cross. In another life-sized picture
this personage figured in the robes of some unknown military order,
and appeared a third time as a bronze bust in a corner, on a black
marble pedestal. The chimney-piece was adorned by a strange and
wonderful clock, a painfully accurate copy in gilt and colored
enamel of the Mihrab of the Mosque in Cordova. Between the windows,
on a high buhl cabinet, stood a marble bust of Queen Isabella, a
gift, according to an inscription on the base, to her valued
Adjutant-General Marquis de Henares. A charming pastel under glass
showed Pilar as a very young girl. As Wilhelm gazed at the dewy
freshness of this sixteen-year-old budding beauty, the dazzling
complexion of milk and roses, the sparkle of the merry, childish
eyes, an immense tenderness came over him, and he thought to himself
that surely nature had not sufficiently protected all these charms
against the desire they must necessarily awaken in the beholder.
Such a ravishing creature might well be excused if her heart led her
astray.
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