Elizabeth's face grew grave as she listened.
"Oh, I am sorry!" she exclaimed.

"What will poor Dinah say when I tell her; she is so anxious for Cedric to choose his friends well, and by your account Mr.Jacobi is certainly not a gentleman." "I thought perhaps you would keep this to yourself;" but Elizabeth shook her head.
"I dare not; Cedric is her own boy, and I must hide nothing from her.
There was only one thing I kept to myself, but then Cedric told it me in the strictest confidence.

Mr.Herrick, it is an absurd question, for Cedric is such a boy--but is not Miss Jacobi likely to be the attraction?
You say she is so handsome." "I might go farther and say she is a beautiful woman," returned Malcolm.

"But tastes differ, you know; I admire Miss Jacobi as I should a picture or a statue, but I could not imagine falling in love with her." "Indeed! I am rather surprised to hear you say that; I thought you were a lover of the picturesque." Elizabeth's tone was a little teasing.
"I do not deny the soft impeachment," replied Malcolm somewhat seriously; "but moral beauty and the loveliness of a well-balanced character outweigh, in my estimation, mere outward beauty.

Miss Jacobi is a stranger to me certainly, but in my opinion there is something complex and mysterious in her personality; there are hard lines in her face, and her expression is at once cynical and unhappy.