He glanced at the letters on his desk and methodically cut open an
envelope. Then he dropped the paper knife, raising his bushy brows, a
gesture that indicates his most genial humour, as he continued with more
than usual deliberateness:--

"You knew her, no doubt, as an intelligent student; you may be surprised
to learn that she has developed extraordinary--the word is not too
strong--extraordinary beauty."

"Always a lovely girl," I muttered.

"From her childhood Nelly has been a favourite with me;" the Judge leaned
back in his big chair, seeming to commit himself to an utterance; "but her
attractions were rather those of mind and heart, I should have said, than
of personal appearance. The change to which I have alluded is more than
the not uncommon budding of a plain girl into the evanescent beauty of
early womanhood; it is the most remarkable thing that has ever come under
my observation. I am getting to be an elderly man, Burke, and I have been
a respectful admirer of many, many fair women, but I have never seen a
girl like Miss Winship; she is phenomenal."

"You--you think so?"

It was true, then!

"I have ceased to think; I am nonplussed. Witchcraft, though not in the
older sense of the word, is still no doubt exercised by young ladies, and
there are certain improvement commissions that undertake, for a suitable
consideration, the--ah--redecoration of feminine architecture, or even the