He had the rounded neck and lissom limbs of a woman; he had a woman's complexion, and the light of a woman's look in his soft blue eyes.

When the years gave a thin curly beard to his cheek they took nothing from its delicate comeliness.

It was as if nature had down to the last moment meant Willy for a girl.

He had been an apt scholar at school, and was one of the few persons in Wythburn having claims to education.

Willy's elder brother, Ralph, more nearly resembled his father.