her childish figure as a partner whom they could not afford to
contemn. And in later years, when the instincts of her sex had
shown her this point as the best and rarest feature in her external
self, she was not found wanting in attention to the cultivation of
finish in its details.

Her hair rested gaily upon her shoulders in curls and was of a
shining corn yellow in the high lights, deepening to a definite
nut-brown as each curl wound round into the shade. She had eyes of a
sapphire hue, though rather darker than the gem ordinarily appears;
they possessed the affectionate and liquid sparkle of loyalty and
good faith as distinguishable from that harder brightness which
seems to express faithfulness only to the object confronting them.

But to attempt to gain a view of her--or indeed of any fascinating
woman--from a measured category, is as difficult as to appreciate
the effect of a landscape by exploring it at night with a lantern
--or of a full chord of music by piping the notes in succession.
Nevertheless it may readily be believed from the description here
ventured, that among the many winning phases of her aspect, these
were particularly striking:--

During pleasant doubt, when her eyes brightened stealthily and
smiled (as eyes will smile) as distinctly as her lips, and in the
space of a single instant expressed clearly the whole round of
degrees of expectancy which lie over the wide expanse between Yea
and Nay.

During the telling of a secret, which was involuntarily
accompanied by a sudden minute start, and ecstatic pressure of