In Victoria, it is easy to discern the nature of this underlying element: it was a peculiar sincerity.

Her truthfulness, her single-mindedness, the vividness of her emotions and her unrestrained expression of them, were the varied forms which this central characteristic assumed.

It was her sincerity which gave her at once her impressiveness, her charm, and her absurdity.

She moved through life with the imposing certitude of one to whom concealment was impossible--either towards her surroundings or towards herself.

There she was, all of her--the Queen of England, complete and obvious; the world might take her or leave her; she had nothing more to show, or to explain, or to modify; and, with her peerless carriage, she swept along her path.