t such as she the most frequently jealous?

Her husband, in her view, is a piece of her property; every look,
word, and thought which he gives to any body or thing else is a part
of her private possessions, unjustly withheld from her.

Independently of that, Lillie felt the instinctive jealousy which a
_passee_ queen of beauty sometimes has for a young rival.

She had eyes to see that Rose was daily growing more and more
beautiful; and not all that young girl's considerateness, her
self-forgetfulness, her persistent endeavors to put Lillie forward,
and make her the queen of the hour, could disguise this fact. Lillie
was a keen-sighted little body, and saw, at a glance, that, once
launched into society together, Rose would carry the day; all the more
that no thought of any day to be carried was in her head.

Rose Ferguson had one source of attraction which is as great a natural
gift as beauty, and which, when it is found with beauty, makes it
perfectly irresistible; to wit, perfect unconsciousness of self. This
is a wholly different trait from unselfishness: it is not a moral
virtue, attained by voluntary effort, but a constitutional
gift, and a very great one. Fenelon praises it as a Christian grace,
under the name of simplicity; but we incline to consider it only as an
advantage of natural organization. There are many excellent Christians
who are haunted by themselves, and in some form or other are always
busy with themselves; either conscientiously pondering the right and
wrong of their actions, or approbatively sensitive to the opinions of
others, or aesthetically comparing their appearance and manners with
an interior standard; while there are others who have received the
gift, beyond the artist's eye or the musician's ear, of perfect
self-forgetfulness. Their religion lacks the element of conflict, and
comes to them by simple impulse.

"Glad souls, without reproach or blot,
Who do His will, and know it not."

Rose had a frank, open joyousness of nature, that shed around her a
healthy charm, like fine, breezy weather, or a bright morning; making
every one feel as if to be good were the most natural thing in the
world. She seemed to be thinking always and directly of matters in
hand, of things to be done, and subjects under discussion, as much as
if she were an impersonal being.

She had been educated with every solid advantage which old Boston can
give to her nicest girls; and that is saying a good deal.