It
was not from her features that the witchery emanated, although in shape
her face was a faultless oval, her narrow forehead high and well-shaped,
her chin powerful. Neither was it from the personality one obtained a
glimpse of through her features. The girl's character and mental quality
seemed much the same as that of other girls; she was generally silent,
or communicative about trifles, and displayed no other coquetry than the
very innocent delight in pleasing which Nature itself would demand.
But all the same there was a fascination about her, as about a fairy
maiden. There was a yellow shimmer about her light hair; azure flames
flashed from her blue eyes. These flames drew a magic circle about her,
and the dozen young men who had strayed inside the circle flocked round
her aunt the evening in the week that the family were "at home" and sat
there, vying with each other for a glance from those wondrous eyes,
hating each other with all their hearts, and suffering from the
ridiculousness of yet meeting like brothers, week after week, as guests
in the same house. The young girl's male relatives, who had outgrown
their enthusiasm for her, declared that her character was not good and
reliable--poor child! had she to be all that, too? Others who did not
ask so much were content to enjoy the sound of her voice.
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