by the slander which had been already but too busy with
his fame? Never, never, he internally resolved, shall my unprovoked enemies
possess such an advantage over my reputation.
    Under the influence of these mixed sensations, and cheered at times by a
smile of intelligence and approbation from the Prince as he passed the group,
Waverley exerted his powers of fancy, animation, and eloquence, and attracted
the general admiration of the company. The conversation gradually assumed the
tone best qualified for the display of his talents and acquisitions. The gaiety
of the evening was exalted in character, rather than checked, by the approaching
dangers of the morrow. All nerves were strung for the future, and prepared to
enjoy the present. This mood of mind is highly favourable for the exercise of
the powers of imagination, for poetry, and for that eloquence which is allied to
poetry. 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. Certainly she had hitherto
accounted among the incurable deficiencies of Edward's disposition, the mauvaise
honte, which, as she had been educated in the first foreign circles, and was
little acquainted with the shyness of English manners, was, in her opinion, too
nearly related to timidity and imbecility of disposition. But if a passing wish
occurred that Waverley could have rendered himself uniformly thus amiable