's lucre, yet cheerful and energetic even if dependent still on her
own exertions.

All this and much more I had heard before I saw Madame Grambeau or her
abode--a picturesque affair in itself, however humble--consisting
originally of a log-house, to which more recently white frame wings had
been attached, projecting a few feet in front of the primitive building,
and connected thereto by a shed-roofed gallery, which embraced the whole
front of the log-cottage, along which ran puncheon steps the entire
length of the grand original tree-trunk, as of the porch itself. It was
a triumph of rural art.

Over this portico, so low in front as barely to admit the passage of a
tall man beneath its eaves, without stooping, a wild multiflora rose,
then in full flower, was artistically trained so as to present a series
of arches to the eye as the wayfarer approached the dwelling; no
tapestry was ever half so lovely.

The path which led from the little white gate, with its swinging chain
and ball, was covered with river-pebbles and shells, and bordered by
box, trimly clipped and kept low, and the two broad steps, that led to
the porch, bore evidence of recent scouring, though rough and unpainted.

Framed in one of those pointed natural cathedral-windows of vivid green,
gemmed with red roses, of which the division-posts of the porch formed
the white outlines, stood the most remarkable-looking aged woman I have
ever seen. At a first glance, indeed, the question of sex would have
arisen, and been found difficult to decide. Her attire seemed that of a
friar, even to the small scalloped cape that scantily covered her
shoulders, and the coarse black serge, of which her strait gown was
composed, leaving exposed her neatly though coarsely clad feet, with
their snow-white home-knit stockings, and low-quartered, well-polished
calf-skin shoes, confined with steel buckles, and elevated on heels,
then worn by men alone.

She wore a white habit shirt, the collar, bosom, and wristbands of which
were visible; but no cap covered her silver hair, which was cropped in
the neck, and divided at one side in true manly fashion. It was brushed
well back from her expansive, fair, and unwrinkled forehead, beneath
which large blue eyes looked out with that strange solemnity we see
alone in the orbs of young, thoughtful children, or the very old.

Scott's description of the "Monk of Melrose Abbey" occurred to me, as I
gazed on this calm and striking figure