She was then only sixteen; and had not in her manner and appearance so much of the woman as is the case with many girls of that age.

She was shy and diffident in manner, thin and tall in person.

If I were to say that she was angular and bony, I should disgust my readers, who, disliking the term, would not stop to consider how many sweetest girls are at that age truly subject to those epithets.

Their undeveloped but active limbs are long and fleshless, the contour of their face is the same, their elbows and shoulders are pointed, their feet and hands seem to possess length without breadth.

Birth and breeding have given them the frame of beauty, to which coming years will add the soft roundness of form, and the rich glory of colour.