"What I should have said is, a good woman and a good bottle.

For what greater delight than to sip a rare vintage with a woman of beauty and intellect opposite?
One glass is enough to loose her laughter, her wit, her charm.

Bah! A man who knows how to drink his wine, a woman who knows when to laugh, a story-teller who stops when his point is told; these trifles add a little color as we pass.
Will you drink to my success ?" "In what ?" with Yankee caution.
"In whatever the future sees fit to place under my hand." "With pleasure! And by the same token you will wish me the same ?" "Gladly!" Their glasses touched lightly; and then their glances, drawn by some occult force, half-circled till they paused on the face of the girl, who, perhaps compelled by the same invisible power, had leveled her eyes in their direction.

With well-bred calm her interest returned to her companions, and the incident was, to all outward sign, closed.
Whatever took place behind that beautiful but indifferent mask no one else ever learned; but simultaneously in the minds of these two adventurers--and surely, to call a man an adventurer does not necessarily imply that he is a _chevalier d'industrie_--a thought, tinged with regret and loneliness, was born; to have and to hold a maid like that.

Love at first sight is the false metal sometimes offered by poets as gold, in quatrains, distiches, verses, and stanzas, tolerated because of the license which allows them to give passing interest the name of love.