It must be admitted likewise that her violence of temper and power of will were somewhat beyond his own, notwithstanding her tender years and his reputation.

In fact, he found himself obliged to observe this, and finally made something of a merit and joke of it.
"There is no managing of the little shrew," he would say.

"Neither man nor devil can bend or break her.

If I smashed every bone in her carcass, she would die shrieking hell at me and defiance." If one admits the truth, it must be owned that if she had not had bestowed upon her by nature gifts of beauty and vivacity so extraordinary, and had been cursed with a thousandth part of the vixenishness she displayed every day of her life, he would have broken every bone in her carcass without a scruple or a qualm.

But her beauty seemed but to grow with every hour that passed, and it was by exceeding good fortune exactly the fashion of beauty which he admired the most.
When she attained her tenth year she was as tall as a fine boy of twelve, and of such a shape and carriage as young Diana herself might have envied.