Dainty little Filomena might, on the other hand, be described as the most delicate of tea roses.

She was fair to a fault, a lily-white maid with the silkiest of flaxen tresses.

Her pale-blue eyes, with their light lashes, and rather colorless little face with its straight features were of the petite fairy type.

You felt instinctively that, like a Dresden china vase, she was made more for ornament than for use, and nobody--even school-mistresses--expected too much from her.
Experience had shown them that they did not get it.
For two years, ever since her mother's death, Fil had been a boarder at the College, and because at first she had been such a pathetic little figure in her deep mourning, the girls had petted her, and had continued an indulgent attitude long after the black dress had been exchanged for colors.

If Fil had rather got into the habit of posing as the mascot of the form, she certainly deserved some consideration, for she was a dear little thing, with a very sweet temper, and never made any of the ill-natured remarks that some of the other girls flung about like missiles.