The other hand
held tightly clasped to her bosom the precious fragment of her broken
lute. The deep repose expressed in her position had not thoroughly
communicated itself to her face. Now and then her slightly parted lips
moved and trembled, and ever and anon a change, so faint and fugitive
that it was hardly perceptible, appeared in her complexion, breathing on
the soft olive that was its natural hue, the light rosy flush which the
emotions of the past night had impressed on it ere she slept. Her
position, in its voluptuous negligence, seemed the very type of Oriental
loveliness; while her face, calm and sorrowful in its expression,
displayed the more refined and sober graces of the European model. And
thus these two characteristics of two different orders of beauty,
appearing conjointly under one form, produced a whole so various and yet
so harmonious, so impressive and yet so attractive, that the senator, as
he bent over the couch, though the warm, soft breath of the young girl
played on his cheeks and waved the tips of his perfumed locks, could
hardly imagine that the scene before him was more than a bright,
delusive dream.
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