Italians are not
afraid to speak, to move, to smile,--unlike the Anglo-Saxon race,
their ease of manner is inborn, and comes to them without training,
hence there is nothing of the stiff formality and awkward gloom
which too frequently hangs like a cloud over English attempts at
sociality,--and that particular charm which is contained in the
brightness and flashing of eyes, creates a dazzling effect
absolutely unknown to colder northern climes. Eyes,--so potent to
bewitch and to command, are a strangely neglected influence in
certain forms of social intercourse. English eyes are too often dull
and downcast, and wear an inane expression of hypocrisy and prudery;
unless they happen to be hard and glittering and meaningless; but in
southern climes, they throw out radiant invitations, laughing
assurances, brilliant mockeries, melting tendernesses, by the
thousand flashes, and make a fire of feeling in the coldest air. And
so in Angela's beautiful studio, among the whiteness of classic
marbles, and the soft hues of richly falling draperies, fair faces
shone out like flowers, lit up by eyes, whose light seemed to be
vividly kindled by the heat of an amorous southern sun,--Venetian
eyes blue as a cornflower, Florentine eyes brown and brilliant as a
russet leaf in autumn, Roman eyes black as night, Sicilian eyes of
all hues, full of laughter and flame--and yet among all, no sweeter
or more penetratingly tender eyes than those of Sylvie Hermenstein
ever shot glances abroad to bewilder and dazzle the heart of man.
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