They were pale and worn, but distinguished even now, though less gorgeously, by a beauty that might be imagined bright enough to glimmer with its own light in a dim cathedral aisle, and had no need to shrink from the severer test of the mid-day sun.

But she seemed tremulous, and hardly able to go through with a scene which at a distance she had found courage to undertake.
"You are most welcome, Miriam!" said the sculptor, seeking to afford her the encouragement which he saw she so greatly required.

"I have a hopeful trust that the result of this interview will be propitious.
Come; let me lead you to Donatello." "No, Kenyon, no!" whispered Miriam, shrinking back; "unless of his own accord he speaks my name,--unless he bids me stay,--no word shall ever pass between him and me.

It is not that I take upon me to be proud at this late hour.

Among other feminine qualities, I threw away my pride when Hilda cast me off." "If not pride, what else restrains you ?" Kenyon asked, a little angry at her unseasonable scruples, and also at this half-complaining reference to Hilda's just severity.