Waverley, as we have elsewhere observed, possessed at times a
wonderful flow of rhetoric; and on the present occasion, he touched more
than once the higher notes of feeling, and then again ran off in a wild
voluntary of fanciful mirth. He was supported and excited by kindred
spirits, who felt the same impulse of mood and time; and even those of
more cold and calculating habits were hurried along by the torrent. Many
ladies declined the dance, which still went forward, and under various
pretences joined the party to which the 'handsome young Englishman'
seemed to have attached himself. He was presented to several of the first
rank, and his manners, which for the present were altogether free from
the bashful restraint by which, in a moment of less excitation, they were
usually clouded, gave universal delight.
Flora Mac-Ivor appeared to be the only female present who regarded him
with a degree of coldness and reserve; yet even she could not suppress a
sort of wonder at talents which, in the course of their acquaintance, she
had never seen displayed with equal brilliancy and impressive effect. I
do not know whether she might not feel a momentary regret at having taken
so decisive a resolution upon the addresses of a lover who seemed fitted
so well to fill a high place in the highest stations of society.
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