inevitable occasion of a fall to her playmates, had usually left her
safe and upright on her feet after the narrowest escape by oscillations
and whirls for the preservation of her balance. At mixed Christmas
parties, when she numbered but twelve or thirteen years, and was
heartily despised on that account by lads who deemed themselves men, her
apt lightness in the dance covered this incompleteness in her womanhood,
and compelled the self-same youths in spite of resolutions to seize upon
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
the listener's arm, side, or neck, as the position and degree
of intimacy dictated.

When anxiously regarding one who possessed her affections.

She suddenly assumed the last-mentioned bearing in the progress of the
present entertainment. Her glance was directed out of the window.

Why the particulars of a young lady's presence at a very mediocre
performance were prevented from d