Whether the clearly-cut profile
presented to Rice, or the full face that captivated Grant, each
suggested possibilities of position, pride, poetry, and passion that
astonished while it fascinated them. By one of those instincts known
only to the freemasonry of the sex, Euphemia lent herself to this
advertisement of her sister's charms by subtle comparison with her own
prettinesses, and thus combined against their common enemy, man.
"Clementina certainly is perfect, to keep her supremacy over that pretty
little sister," thought Rice.
"What a fascinating little creature to hold her own against that tall,
handsome girl," thought Grant.
"They're takin' stock o' them two fellers so as to gabble about 'em when
their backs is turned," said John Milton gloomily to himself, with a
dismal premonition of the prolonged tea-table gossip he would be obliged
to listen to later.
"We were very fortunate to make a landing at all last night," said Rice,
looking down upon the still swollen current, and then raising his eyes
to Clementina. "Still more fortunate to make it where we did. I suppose
it must have been the singing that lured us on to the bank,--as,
you know, the sirens used to lure people,--only with less disastrous
consequences."
John Milton here detected three glaring errors; first, it was NOT
Clementina who had sung; secondly, he knew that neither of his sisters
had ever read anything about sirens, but he had; thirdly, that the
young surveyor was glaringly ignorant of local phenomena and should be
corrected.
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