Nothing could be more delicate than the blond complexion--its bloom set off by the powdered hair--than the veined overhanging eye-lids, which gave an indolent expression to the hazel eyes; nothing more finely cut than the transparent nostril and the short upper-lip.

Perhaps the chin and lower jaw were too small for an irreproachable profile, but the defect was on the side of that delicacy and _finesse_ which was the distinctive characteristic of the whole person, and which was carried out in the clear brown arch of the eyebrows, and the marble smoothness of the sloping forehead.

Impossible to say that this face was not eminently handsome; yet, for the majority both of men and women, it was destitute of charm.

Women disliked eyes that seemed to be indolently accepting admiration instead of rendering it; and men, especially if they had a tendency to clumsiness in the nose and ankles, were inclined to think this Antinous in a pig-tail a 'confounded puppy'.

I fancy that was frequently the inward interjection of the Rev.Maynard Gilfil, who was seated on the opposite side of the dining-table, though Mr.Gilfil's legs and profile were not at all of a kind to make him peculiarly alive to the impertinence and frivolity of personal advantages.