question whether she could have received one--she was so quiet and
irresponsive. People who expressed themselves roughly called her
stolid. But she was irresponsive because she was shy, uncomfortably,
painfully shy. This was not always understood, and she sometimes
produced an impression of insensibility. In reality she was the
softest creature in the world.



CHAPTER III



As a child she had promised to be tall, but when she was sixteen she
ceased to grow, and her stature, like most other points in her
composition, was not unusual. She was strong, however, and properly
made, and, fortunately, her health was excellent. It has been noted
that the Doctor was a philosopher, but I would not have answered for
his philosophy if the poor girl had proved a sickly and suffering
person. Her appearance of health constituted her principal claim to
beauty, and her clear, fresh complexion, in which white and red were
very equally distributed, was, indeed, an excellent thing to see.
Her eye was small and quiet, her features were rather thick, her
tresses brown and smooth. A dull, plain girl she was called by
rigorous critics--a quiet, ladylike girl by those of the more
imaginative sort; but by neither class was she very elaborately
discussed. When it had been duly impressed upon her that she was a
young lady--it was a good while before she could believe it--she
suddenly developed a lively taste for dress: a lively taste is quite
the expression to use. I feel as if I ought to write it very small,