Chapter XXXIV
Besides other Matter, containing an Argument.
We left Ramsay domiciliated in the house of the syndic Van Krause, on
excellent terms with his host, who looked upon him as the mirror of
information, and not a little in the good graces of the syndic's
daughter, Wilhelmina. There could not be a more favourable opportunity,
perhaps, for a handsome and well-informed young man to prosecute his
addresses and to gain the affections of the latter, were he so inclined.
Wilhelmina had been brought up in every luxury, but isolated from the
world. She was now just at the age at which it was her father's
intention to introduce her; but romantic in her disposition, she cared
little for the formal introduction which it was intended should take
place. Neither had she seen, in any of the young Dutch aristocracy, most
of whom were well known to her by sight, as pointed out to her by her
father when riding with him, that form and personal appearance which her
mind's eye had embodied in her visions of her future lover. Her mind was
naturally refined, and she looked for that elegance and grace of
deportment which she sought for in vain among her countrymen, but which
had suddenly been presented to her in the person of Edward Ramsay.
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