een she had been
the Cinderella of the family, during which period of seclusion she had
learned to think and to act for herself.

Her figure was a little above the middle size, light and elegant; her
features beautiful, with an expression of seriousness, arising probably
from speaking little and reflecting much. Yet she possessed a mind
ardent and enthusiastic, which often bore her away in animated
discourse, until the eye of admiration fixed upon her, would suddenly
close her lips, for her modesty and her genius were at perpetual
variance.

It is well known to most of my readers that woman is a problem; but it
may not be as well known that now-a-days, she is a _mathematical
problem_. Yet so it is. As in the latter you have certain known
quantities given by which you are to find a quantity unknown, so in a
lady you have the hand, the foot, the mouth, etcetera, apparent; and
'tis only by calculation, now that modern dresses are made so full, that
you can arrive at a just estimate of her approach to total perfection.
All good arithmeticians, as they scrutinised the outward and the visible
of Isabel Revel, were perfectly assured as to her quotient. But if I
talked for hours, I could say no more than that she was one of those
ideal images created in the dream of youth and poetry, fairly embodied
in flesh and blood. As her father had justly surmised, could she have
been persuaded to have tried her fortune on the stage, she had personal
attractions, depth of feeling, and vivacity of mind to have rendered her
one of the very first in a profession, to excel in which, perhaps, there
is more correct judgment and versatility of talent required than in any
other, and would have had a fair prospect of obtaining that coronet
which has occasionally been the reward of those fair dames who "stoop to
conquer."

Mr Revel, who had been made acquainted with the customs on board of
East India ships, had been introduced to Mrs Ferguson, and had
requested her to take upon herself the office of _chaperone_ to his
daughters, during the passage; a nominal charge indeed, yet considered
to be etiquette. Mrs Ferguson, pleased with the gentleman--like
demeanour and personal appearance of Mr Revel, and perhaps at the same
time not sorry to have an authority to find fault, had most graciously
acquiesced, and the three Miss Revels were considered to be under her
protection.

As I said before, Miss Isabel Revel made her appearance not unattend