Her nose was regular and her pale lips curved pleasantly.

She was what the Tagalogs call _kayumanguing-kaligatan_; that is, her color was a clear, pure brown.

In spite of her youthfulness, pain and perhaps even hunger had begun to make hollow her pallid cheeks, and if her abundant hair, in other times the delight and adornment of her person, was even yet simply and neatly arranged, though without pins or combs, it was not from coquetry but from habit.
Sisa had been for several days confined to the house sewing upon some work which had been ordered for the earliest possible time.

In order to earn the money, she had not attended mass that morning, as it would have taken two hours at least to go to the town and return: poverty obliges one to sin! She had finished the work and delivered it but had received only a promise of payment.

All that day she had been anticipating the pleasures of the evening, for she knew that her sons were coming and she had intended to make them some presents.