"I am sure you will win in this beauty contest, but you might fail, in which case we should be sorry if any one knew of the attempt." "I shall not fail," she answered confidently, though not in vanity.
"But Hamilton said he would return to the siege when he had made his fortune," I suggested.
"Of that I have no hope," she returned dolefully, "and I shall put him out of my thoughts if I can, as soon as I can." "It must be done now," I returned emphatically.
"Ay, it is easy to say 'now,' but 'now' is a hard, hard time.

It is much easier to do a difficult thing to-morrow.

But do not fear, Baron Ned.

It shall be done, and I shall marry a duke or an earl, loathing him." She was almost ready to weep, so, believing that she would like to be alone, I left her.
Within half an hour she was at home, sitting in a low chair by her father's side, laughing, happy, and beautiful, with that rare, indefinable home charm a woman may have which is as far beyond the mere beauty of hair and skin and eyes as the sparkle of a bright mysterious star is beyond the beauty of the moon's pale sheen.
With all my cousin's marvellous beauty, her rarest charm lay in her gracious manner, her unobtrusive vivacity, and her quaint combination of Sarah's Machiavellian wisdom with the intense femininity of Eve.

Add to these qualities the unmistakable mark which a pure heart leaves on the face, and we complete the picture of one who in a short time was acknowledged to be without a peer in Whitehall, the most famous beauty court the world has ever known.
Before I left Sundridge it had been agreed among us all that Frances should go to London, though the plans had not been arranged nor the time fixed.