dazzling beauty in the West Indies. It may seem incredible that a
confectioner should have ideas and conversation so much resembling those
to be met with in a higher walk of life, but it must be remembered that
he had not merely travelled, he had also bow-legs and a sallow, small-
featured visage, so that nature herself had stamped him for a fastidious
connoisseur of the fair sex.

At last, however, it seemed clear that Cupid had found a sharper arrow
than usual, and that Mr. Freely's heart was pierced. It was the general
talk among the young people at Grimworth. But was it really love, and
not rather ambition? Miss Fullilove, the timber-merchant's daughter, was
quite sure that if _she_ were Miss Penny Palfrey, she would be cautious;
it was not a good sign when men looked so much above themselves for a
wife. For it was no less a person than Miss Penelope Palfrey, second
daughter of the Mr. Palfrey who farmed his own land, that had attracted
Mr. Freely's peculiar regard, and conquered his fastidiousness; and no
wonder, for the Ideal, as exhibited in the finest waxwork, was perhaps
never so closely approached by the Real as in the person of the pretty
Penelope. Her yellowish flaxen hair did not curl naturally, I admit, but
its bright crisp ringlets were such smooth, perfect miniature tubes, that
you would have longed to pass your little finger through them, and feel
their soft elasticity. She wore them in a crop, for in those days, when
society was in a healthier state, young ladies wore crops long after they
were twenty, and Penelope was not yet nineteen. Like the waxen ideal,
she had round blue eyes, and round nostrils in her little nose, and teeth
such as the ideal would be seen to have, if it ever showed them.
Altogether, she was a small, round thing, as neat as a pink and white
double daisy, and as guileless; for I hope it does not argue guile in a
pretty damsel of nineteen, to think that she should like to have a beau
and be "engaged," when her elder sister had already been in that position