A Disappointment

There could not have been a better night for sleighing. The temperature
had risen considerably since the storm, and the snow, which had fallen
to the depth of a foot, was already packed down hard upon the road, so
that the runners seldom sank beneath the surface. Moreover, there was a
full moon, just pushing its deep orange circumference above the horizon.
It had chanced to come up just where a black skeleton forest stood out
against the sky, encouraging the fancy that it had somehow got entangled
in the branches, and had grown red in the face from struggling to get
out. But, ere the young people reached the scene of the entertainment,
the struggle was over; the perfect circle was calmly and radiantly
uplifting itself above the world, far beyond the reach of the
outstretched arms of the gnarled and black-limbed forest; yet did the
dark earth benefit by its defeat, in the chaste illumination which
descended upon its wintry countenance.

Mr. Reynolds was perfectly happy; it is pleasant to reflect how small an
amount of bliss can overflow some souls. Cornelia was brief but kind in
her answers to his turbid and confused pourings forth; not that she paid
heed to any thing the poor fellow said--she was only occasionally aware
of his presence. Her mind was revelling in dreams of heated and exalted
imagination; she was filled with inspiration, as with the rich,
palpitating blast of a mighty organ; but the tumultuous chorus of her
thoughts produced upon her an effect of magnetism which found its
expression in a gentle graciousness of words and manner.