A proud eye she had, with all her sweetness.--I think it was
that which hanged her, as his strong arm hanged Minister George
Burroughs;--but it may have been a little mole on one cheek, which the
artist had just hinted as a beauty rather than a deformity. You know, I
suppose, that nursling imps addict themselves, after the fashion of
young opossums, to these little excrescences. "Witch-marks" were good
evidence that a young woman was one of the Devil's wet-nurses;--I
should like to have seen you make fun of them in those days!--Then she
had a brooch in her bodice, that might have been taken for some
devilish amulet or other; and she wore a ring upon one of her fingers,
with a red stone in it, that flamed as if the painter had dipped his
pencil in fire;--who knows but that it was given her by a midnight
suitor fresh from that fierce element, and licensed for a season to
leave his couch of flame to tempt the unsanctified hearts of earthly
maidens and brand their cheeks with the print of his scorching kisses?
She and I,--he said, as he looked steadfastly at the canvas,--she and I
are the last of 'em.--She will stay, and I shall go. They never painted
me,--except when the boys used to make pictures of me with chalk on the
board-fences.
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