He had been reading apparently in a large Bible, that now lay closed before him, with one of his elbows resting on it, and on which his spectacles lay. I had never seen a more benign eye, and his serene high features, whose healthy hue betokened a green old age, were lit up into the most bland and beneficent expression, as with lips apart, disclosing a regular set of teeth, he smiled on a darling little half-naked cherub of a child about two years and a half old, that sat on the table beside him, playing with his white hairs.
He was a lovely little chubby fellow; a most beautiful fair-skinned and fair-haired boy, with no clothing on but a short cambric shift, bound at the waist with a small pink silk handkerchief. His round fat little arms, and little stumpy legs, were entirely naked; even shoes he had none, and in his tumblifications he seemed utterly to have forgotten that he had no drawers on. But the glorious little fellow's head!--his glossy short curling fair hair, that frizzled out all round his head as if it had been a golden halo floating over his sunny features--his noble, wide spreading forehead--his dark blue laughing eyes--his red ripe cheeks, and beautiful mouth, with the glancing ivory within!--Oh, I should weary all hands were I to dilate on the darling little fellow's appearance; for, next to a horse or a Newfoundland dog, I dote on a beautiful child. "Shall I ever have such a magnificent little chap?" burst from my lips against my will. "I hope you may, sir," said a calm, low-pitched female voice, close to me.
The soft musical sounds startled me more, under the circumstances, than a trumpet note would have done. I turned to the quarter from whence they proceeded, and saw two young women seated on one of the sofas at the side. The eldest might have been about five-and-twenty; she was very fair--I ought rather to write pale, all mouth and eyes as it were--I mean no disparagement, because the features were good, but only to convey the impression of them on my mind at the time. Her skin seemed so transparent, that the blue veins were traceable in all directions over her bosom and neck and forehead; while her nose was a little--not red--but _fresh_ looking, as if she had been weeping, which she had not been. A fine mouth, forehead, and strong well-defined dark eyebrows, over-arching such eyes!--black, jet black, and flashing through their long dark fringes.
