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Page 53
But although cold--almost repellant to all who had poured
their ephemeral and seldom varying homage in her ear--no
woman's heart ever beat with more kind--more generous--more
devoted sentiments, than her own. Possessed of a vivid
imagination, which the general quietude of her demeanor
in a great degree disowned, she had already sketched
within her glowing mind her own beau ideal, whose image
was a talisman to deaden her heart against the influence
of these soulless realities.
With such sentiments as these had Maria Heywood cheerfully
consented to accompany her parents to that secluded spot,
from which there was little probability of a speedy
return; but solitude, so far from weakening the strong
impressions that had entwined themselves around her heart,
from the moment of her emancipation from childhood, only
served to invest them with new power. The more her feelings
repined--the more expanded her intellect--the stronger
became the sense of absence of one who could enter into,
and in some degree, give a direction to all her thoughts
and emotions--sharing with her the rich fruit that
springs from the consciousness of kindred associations
of mind. But this was the secret of her own heart--of
the heart of one whose personal attractions were well
suited to the rich and overflowing character of her soul,
and who had now attained that age which gives eloquent
expression to every movement of the ripely moulded form.
Above the middle size, the figure of Maria Heywood was
at once gracefully and nobly formed. Her face, of a
chiselled oval, was of a delicate olive tint, which well
harmonized with eyes of a lustrous hazel, and hair of
glossy raven black. A small mouth, bordered by lips of
coral fulness, disclosed, when she smiled, teeth white
and even; while a forehead, high for her sex, combined
with a nose, somewhat more aquiline than Grecian, to give
dignity to a countenance that might, otherwise, have
exhibited a character of voluptuous beauty. Yet, although
her features, when lighted up by vivacity or emotion,
were radiant with intelligence; their expression when in
repose was of a pensive cast, that, contrasted with her
general appearance, gave to it a charm, addressed at once
to sense and sentiment, of which it is impossible, by
description, to give an adequate idea. A dimpled cheek,
an arm, hand and foot, that might have served the statuary
as a model, completed a person which, without exaggeration,
might be deemed almost, if not wholly faultless.
The habits of Mr. Heywood were of that peculiar nature
--his desire of isolation from every thing that could be
called society was so obvious, that for the first year
of the residence of the family at Chicago, scarcely any
intercourse had been maintained between the inmates of
the cottage and the officers' wives; and it was only on
the occasion of the commanding officer giving a party,
to celebrate the anniversary of American Independence on
the following year, that the first approach to an
acquaintance had been made. It had been deemed by him a
matter of duty to invite all of the few American families
that were settled in the neighborhood, and of course the
Heywoods were of the number. On the same principle of
conventionalism the invitation was accepted, and not
slight was the surprise of the ladies of the garrison,
when they found in the secluded occupants of the cottage,
to whom they had assigned a doubtful position in society,
those to whom no effort of their own prejudice could
refuse that correct estimate, which quiet dignity without
ostentation, is ever certain to command.
At the announcement of the names of Mrs. and Miss Heywood,
the somewhat stately Mrs. Headley was disposed to receive
with hauteur the inmates of the cottage, but no sooner
had Maria Heywood, accompanied by her gentle mother,
entered the apartment with the easy and composed air of
one to whom the drawing-room is familiar, than all her
prejudices vanished, and with a heart warming towards
her, as though she, had been the cherished sister of her
love, she arose, pressed her hand affectionately and
welcomed her to the Fort with the sincerity of a generous
and elevated nature, anxious to repair its own wrong.
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