one comes to think about it, you are not so very ugly after all; and
are much better looking than Flora, whom we were taught to believe
in.'

'Poor Flora! You were no judge in her blooming days, before wear and
tear came.'

'And made her like our Scotch grandfather.'

'But Blanche! your own Blanche, Aubrey? She might have extended
Leonard's ideas of beauty.'

'Blanche has a pretty little visage of her own; but it's not so well
worth looking at as yours,' said Aubrey. 'One has seen to the end of
it at once; and it won't light up. Hers is just the May blossom; and
yours the--the--I know--the orchis! I have read of a woman with an
orchidaceous face!'

Teeth, tongue, lips, eyes, and nose were at once made to serve in
hitting off an indescribable likeness to an orchis blossom, which was
rapturously applauded, till Ethel, relaxing the strain and permitting
herself to laugh triumphantly at her own achievement, said, 'There!
I do pride myself on being of a high order of the grotesque.'

'It is not the grotesque that he means.' said Aubrey, 'he is very
cracked indeed. He declares that when you came and sat by him the
day before yesterday, you were perfectly lovely.'

'Oh, then I understand, and it is no matter,' said Ethel.