row, full of grace with every movement.
Her quick, firm, elastic step was Youth personified: a charming maiden,
she, of twenty summers. The artistic outlines of her plump arms and
shoulders, beautifully modelled bust, throat and neck, so admirably
proportioned, would have satisfied the most carping critic; poet or
painter, he would have pronounced them a dream of perfect symmetry. Her
queenly shaped head, so gracefully poised, like a clear cut cameo, was a
poem of intellectual development on lines of rarest beauty. Her thick,
glossy hair of dark chestnut brown, fine as spun silk and inclined to a
wavy crimp, was artistically coiled in a most becoming style; small ears
of perfect shape, and transparently pink, were set close to the head.
The curve of the brow, in perfect line with the pleasing oval of both
cheek and chin; a Grecian nose and cherub mouth completed the perfect
contour of a face and head of marvellous beauty--a beauty made more
brilliant by large, lustrous eyes of blended sapphire and amethyst,
flashing jewels of deep violet blue, so clearly expressing the varying
emotions by their ever changing tints of sparkling light. Her dress, a
close fitting gown of rich, soft, silver gray material, was stylishly
made, with a narrow line of lovely lace at the throat; perfect fitting
gloves of the same shade of gray, with a parasol to match, completed a
costume that seemed to bring out and intensify a most charming
complexion of pale pink and white, faultlessly smooth and transparently
pure: at once indicative and prophetic of a strong vital temperament,
perfect mental and physical health; pure, highly cultured mind and a
wealth of personal magnetism--that silent charm of mysterious
potency--pervading and surrounding her like the perfume of sweet
flowers, winning the unsought admiration, friendship and fidelity of all
who came within the radiance of her powerful magnetic aura. All this,
and more, Fillmore Flagg perceived and felt. He walked and talked as one
in a dream. Never before had he met so fair a vision of female
loveliness, with grace so winning, gestures so perfect and voice so
musical. His heart, overflowing with a new ecstatic emotion, paid silent
homage to this queenly creature. He was lost in admiration. Swallowed up
and absorbed by the first incoming wave of a great love. He was lifted
out of himself, above and beyond all gross things of earth, into a
heaven of pure delight. His better nature was thrilled a