e
features are not strikingly regular, there is sympathy and great
sweetness in the face, and art and refinement are expressed even by the
slim, pale hands. An airy, lithesome figure she has, and the beat of
her footfall is cadenced to the measure of joyous music. Frail she
seems compared with Lela's well-rounded figure, but if she has not
equal strength, she has elasticity; and if more energy and power is
indicated by the physiognomy of Lela, Majoli has ambition and judgment
to compensate.

"We have compared Lela's face to the rich portraiture of Guercino;
Majoli's suggests the pencil of that famous old Spanish master, Ribera,
whose pictures of women were always a blending of the elegance of a
court lady with the simplicity and _naivete_ of a church devotee. Half
belle, half _religieuse_ we may style her.

"And on what have these dainty minds been nurtured, and who have been
their intellectual mentors? Lela has been bred within a cloister's
walls, and foreign travel has polished both mind and manners.

"In no school has Majoli's mind been formed, nor is she greatly
indebted to learned professors for her mental attainments. A mother's
love has quickened the budding intellect, a mother's intelligence has
trained and directed the unfolding powers. The grace of foreign speech
is on her tongue, and scenes and pictures of distant lands are
enshrined in her memory. Ancient lore has for her a peculiar charm;
history is her delight; Plutarch, Josephus, Gibbon, Macaulay, she has
conned well. Poesy she loves much. The poetry of the Bible, Dante,
Schiller, Herbert, Browning, are her favorites. In sacred books she
finds sweet enjoyment. The Fathers of the Church afford her great
pleasure; St. Augustine, St. Basil, Thomas a Kempis, etc. She has the
grace of devotion, but her love of the Church is affected more by its
aesthetical qualities than its theological dogmas.

"Lela is a passionate book-lover. There are few modern writers that
have not furnished entertainment to her accomplished mind, and she is
not unacquainted with the best Latin and Greek authors. English,
German, and French literature are alike open to her. Biography,
essays, dramas, poetry, with more serious reading, occupy her time.
Virgil and Horace, Bacon, Shakespeare, Racine, Victor Hugo, Heine and
George Eliot may be mentioned as among her preferences.

"But while we are attempting to portray some noticeable characteristics
in Lela and Majoli,