eath a head of snow; and that it is even in the calmest
and most moderate characters that passion once enkindled burns fierce,
perennial and unquenchable! Thus far, however, had she advanced into
the flower of fair maidenhood, undisturbed by any warmer dream than
devoted affection toward her parent, whose wayward grief she could
understand if she could not appreciate, and whom she strove by every
gentle wile to wean from his morbid fancies; and earnest love toward
her sister, whom she, indeed, almost adored--perhaps adored the more
from the very difference of their minds, and for her very
imperfections.

For Agnes was all gay vivacity, and petulance, and fire--so that her
young companions, who sportively named Blanche the icicle, had
christened her the sunbeam; and, in truth, if the first name were ill
chosen, the second seemed to be an inspiration; for like a sunbeam
that touched nothing but to illuminate it, like a sunbeam she played
with all things, smiled on all things in their turn--like a sunbeam
she brought mirth with her presence, and after her departure, left a
double gloom behind her.

More dazzling than Blanche, she made her impression at first sight,
and so long as the skies were clear, and the atmosphere unruffled, the
sunbeam would continue to gild, to charm, to be worshiped. But if the
time of darkness and affliction came, the gay sunbeam held aloof,
while the poor icicle, melted from its seeming coldness, was ever
ready to weep for the sorrows of those who had neglected her in the
days of their happiness.

Unused to yield, high-spirited when crossed, yet carrying off even her
stubbornness and quick temper by the brilliancy, the wit, the lively
and bold audacity which she cast around them, Agnes ruled in her
circle an imperious and despotic queen; while her slaves, even as they
trembled before her half sportive but emphatic frown, did not suspect
the sceptre of the tyrant beneath the spell of the enchantress.

Agnes, in one word, was the idol of the rich and gay; Blanche was the
saint of the poor, the lowly, the sick, and those who mourn.

It may be that the peculiarity of her position, the neglect which she
had always experienced from her father, and mediately from the
hirelings of the household, ever prompt to pander to the worst
feelings of their superiors--the consciousness that born co-heiress
with her sister, she was doomed to sink into the insignificance of an
undowered and uncared-for girl,