She is a good and kind
fairy, however, and sweetly disposed towards the human race, although
only remotely akin to it. It is wonderful to see how small she is, how
pale her cheek, how bright and dark her eyes. There is not such another
figure in the world; and her black ringlets cluster down into her neck,
and make her face look the whiter by their sable profusion. I could not
form any judgment about her age; it may range anywhere within the limits
of human life or elfin life. When I met her in London at Lord Houghton's
breakfast-table, she did not impress me so singularly; for the morning
light is more prosaic than the dim illumination of their great tapestried
drawing-room; and besides, sitting next to her, she did not have occasion
to raise her voice in speaking, and I was not sensible what a slender
voice she has. It is marvellous to me how so extraordinary, so acute, so
sensitive a creature can impress us, as she does, with the certainty of
her benevolence. It seems to me there were a million chances to one that
she would have been a miracle of acidity and bitterness.
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