the painter's pencil to depict to the
eye.

Her complexion, though soft and delicate, was of the very darkest hue
that is ever seen in persons of unmixed European blood; so dark that
the very blood which would mantle to her cheek at times in burning
blushes, was shaded, as it were, with a darker hue, like damask roses
seen through the medium of a gold-tinted window-pane.

Her brows and lashes were as black as night, but, strange to say, the
eyes that flashed from beneath them with an almost painful splendor,
were of a clear, deep azure, less dark than those of the fairer
sister, giving a singular and wild character to her whole face, and
affecting the style of her beauty, but whether for the better or the
worse it was for those who admired or shunned--and there were who took
both parts--to determine. Her face was rounder and fuller than her
sister's, and, in fact, this was true of her whole person--so much so
that she was often mistaken for the elder--her features were less
regular, her nose having a slight tendency to that form which has no
name in our language, but which charmed all beholders in Roxana, as
_retroussie_. Her mouth was as warm, as soft, as sweetly dimpled, but
it was not free from that expression which Blanche's lacked
altogether, and might have been blamed as too wooing and luxurious.

Such were the various characters of the sisters' personal
appearance--the characters of their mental attributes were as
distinctly marked, and as widely different.

Blanche was all gentleness and moderation from her very cradle--a
delicate and tender child, smiling always, but rarely laughing; never
boisterous or loud even in her childish plays. And as she grew older,
this character became more definite, and was more strongly observed;
she was a pensive, tranquil creature, not melancholy, much less
sad--for she was awake to all that was beautiful or grand, all that
was sweet or gentle in the face of nature, or in the history of man;
and there was, perhaps, more real happiness concealed under her calm
exterior, than is often to be found under the wilder mirth of merrier
beings. Ever ready to yield her wishes to those of her friends or
companions, many persons imagined that she had little will, and no
fixed wishes, or deliberate aspirations--passionless and pure as the
lily of the vale, many supposed that she was cold and heartless. Oh!
ignorant! not to remember that the hearts of the fiercest volcanos
boil still ben