They had brought with them a piano and a few books, mostly French;--and with these it seemed to have been intended that the two ladies should make their future lives endurable.

Other resources except such as the scenery of the cliffs afforded them, they had none.
The author would wish to impress upon his readers, if it may be possible, some idea of the outward appearance and personal character of each of these two ladies, as his story can hardly be told successfully unless he do so.

The elder, who was at this time still under forty years of age, would have been a very handsome woman had not troubles, suffering, and the contests of a rugged life, in which she had both endured and dared much, given to her face a look of hard combative resolution which was not feminine.

She was rather below than above the average height,--or at any rate looked to be so, as she was strongly made, with broad shoulders, and a waist that was perhaps not now as slender as when she first met Captain O'Hara.

But her hair was still black,--as dark at least as hair can be which is not in truth black at all but only darkly brown.