she was an exceedingly
pretty girl. It is natural that handsome young women should attire
themselves with extra care, and although Jennie would have been
beautiful under any conceivable condition of dress, she nevertheless did
not neglect the arraying of herself becomingly on that account. All that
was remarkable on this occasion consisted in the fact that she took more
than usual pains to make herself presentable, and it must be admitted
that the effect was as attractive as anyone could wish to have it. Her
appearance was enough to send a friend into ecstasies, or drive an enemy
to despair.

Jennie's voluminous hair, without being exactly golden, was--as the
poets might term it--the colour of ripe corn, and was distractingly
fluffy at the temples. Her eyes were liquidly, bewitchingly black, of
melting tenderness, and yet, upon occasion, they would harden into
piercing orbs that could look right through a man, and seem to fathom
his innermost thoughts. A smooth, creamy complexion, with a touch of red
in the cheeks, helped to give this combination of blonde and brunette an
appearance so charmingly striking that it may be easily understood she
was not a girl to be passed by with a single glance. Being so favoured
by nature, Jennie did not neglect the aid of art, and it must be
admitted that most of her income was expended in seeing that her
wardrobe contained the best that Paris could supply; and the best in
this instance was not necessarily the most expensive--at least not as
expensive as such supplementing might have been to an ordinary woman,
for Jennie wrote those very readable articles on the latest fashionable
gowns which have appeared in some of the ladies' weeklies, and it was
generally supposed that this fact did not cause her own replenishing
from the _modistes_ she so casually mentioned in her writings to be more
expensive than her purse could afford. Be that as it may, Miss Baxter
was always most becomingly attired, and her whole effect was so
entrancing that men have been known to turn in the street as she passed,
and murmur, "By Jove!" a phrase that, when you take into account the
tone in which it is said, represents the furthermost point of admiration
which the limited vocabulary of a man about town permits him to utter;
and it says something for the honesty of Jennie's black eyes, and the
straightforwardness of her energetic walk, that none of these momentary
admirers ever turned and followed her.

On th