midnight
The lunch commenced . It was a very picturesque group seated that day beneath the golden trees ; and the difference in the appearance of each member of the party made the effect more complete . Redbud , with her mild , tender eyes , and gentle smile and sylvan costume , was the representative of the fine shepherdesses of former time , and wanted but a crook to worthily fill Marlow 's ideal ; for she had not quite `` A belt of straw and ivy buds , With coral clasps and amber studs , -- '' her slender waist was encircled by a crimson ribbon , quite as prettily embroidered as the zone of the old poet 's fancy , and against her snowy neck the coral necklace which she wore was clearly outlined , rising and falling tranquilly , like May-buds woven by child-hands into a bright wreath , and launched on the surface of some limpid stream . And Fanny -- gay , mischievous Fanny , with her mad-cap countenance , and midnight eyes , and rippling , raven curls -- Fanny looked like a young duchess taking her pleasure , for the sake of contrast , in the woods -- far from ancestral halls , and laughing at the follies of the court . Her hair trained back -- as Redbud 's was -- in the fashion called _ La Pompadour _ ; her red-heeled rosetted shoes -- her silken gown -- all this was plainly the costume of a courtly maiden . Redbud was the country ; Fanny , town . Between Verty and Ralph , we need not say , the difference was as marked .