Though I could not refrain from smiling, I felt for the time that Fanny's view of things was very contagious. The splendor of a May morning, the freshness of Nature, and the concert of singing birds, had put me into a disposition to be pleased, and the simplicity of this dear little girl had all the stimulating effect of novelty on my senses.
At this moment, turning round a wooded knoll which we had been skirting while thus engaged in a sort of conversation so unlike what I had ever been accustomed to, a group of three donkies appeared in view. "Here they come," exclaimed Fanny; and, darting with the fleetness of a greyhound, she flew to meet her sisters, who were attended by a peasant-boy, carrying a basket before him. Nothing could be more picturesque than the scene, and it was much heightened by the approach of these rustic equestrians. While I was moving towards them, a fine pointer passed me by at full speed, and a tap on my shoulder announced Frederick, who came running across the grass to join the party. A few moments brought us together, and, to my amazement, the brother and sisters met with as much demonstration of gladness at sight of each other as Louisa, Adelaide, and I could have mustered after a year's separation. The effect was pleasant; and, if _sincere_, this affection which the people here discover towards each other has something very _comfortable_ in it; but it is only calculated for this sort of place, and, like hospitality, naturally flies into these recesses of the earth, where the objects are scarce upon which one's practice can be exercised. Politeness is necessary to a _certain_ degree in the world, and even _that_ may be overdone; but beyond this how little of the heart does one see brought into play, and indeed on a great theatre the thing would be impracticable, if it were not such a bore as to render an attempt to love every one that a man meets as absurd as it is impossible. But I digress.--Large coarse straw hats shaded my pretty cousins from the sun, which shone brightly. The eldest has a peculiar expression, made up of the intellectual and pensive, which is singularly agreeable, though her features are not regular enough for what requires no periphrasis to describe, but is at once called beauty. Charlotte is very pleasing also; her countenance is less strongly marked than Emily's by reflection, but it is quick as lightning--and full of sensibility; while Fanny's face exhibits a mixture of all the varied characteristics of both her sisters', or may perhaps be more properly denominated a mirror, in which every movement of _their_ minds that makes it way to the surface, is shadowed with fidelity.