it is a little large; but your
teeth are regular, and with a little more care, would be quite white.
And your nose?--let me see--yes, if there were a little elevation, a
little ridge in it, it would be quite good, too! Let me see, I really
believe it begins to elevate itself!--yes, actually, I see plainly
enough the beginning of a ridge! and do you know, if it come, and when
you are well, and have naturally a fresh colour, I think that you will
be really pretty!"

"Ah! if I can ever believe that!" said Leonore, sighing, at the same
time that an involuntary smile lit up her countenance.

"And even if you are not so very lovely," continued Eva, "you know that
yet you can be infinitely agreeable; you have something peculiarly so in
your demeanour. I heard papa say so this very day to mamma."

"Did he really say so?" said Leonore, her countenance growing brighter
and brighter.

"Yes, indeed he did!" replied her sister. "But, ah! Leonore, after all,
what is beauty? It fades away, and at last is laid in the black earth,
and becomes dust; and even whilst it is blooming, it is not
all-sufficient to make us either beloved or happy! It certainly has not
an intrinsic value."

Never was the power of beauty depreciated by more beautiful lips!
Leonore looked at her and sighed.

"No, Leonore," continued she, "do not trouble yourself to be beautiful.
This, it is true, may at times be very pleasant, but it certainly is not
necessary to make us either beloved or happy. I am convinced that if you
were not in the least prettier than you are, yet that you might if you
would, in your own peculiar way, be as much in favour and as much
beloved as the prettiest girls in the world."

"Ah!" said Leonore, "if I were only beloved by my nearest connexions!
What a divine thing it must be to be beloved by one's own family!"

"But that you can be--that you will be, if you only will! Ah! if you
only were always as you are sometimes--and you are more and more so--and
I love you more and more--infinitely I love you!"

"Oh, beloved Eva," said Leonore, deeply affected, whilst she leaned
herself quietly on her sister, "I have very little deserved this from
you; but, for the future, I will be different--I will be such as you
would have me. I will endeavour to be good and amiable."

"And then you will be so lovely, so beloved, and so happy!" said Eva,
"that it would be a real delight. But now you must come down into
Louise's and my room. There is