" In speaking thus of his opinion, the worthy
engraver surely depreciated himself most unjustly: for, if the father
of eight daughters cannot succeed in learning (philoprogenitively
speaking) to be a good judge of women, what man can?
However, there was one point on which Mr. Gimble, Lady Brambledown, Mr.
Bullivant, Mrs. Blyth's father, and hosts of friends besides, were all
agreed, without one discordant exception.
They unanimously asserted that the young lady's face was the nearest
living approach they had ever seen to that immortal "Madonna" face,
which has for ever associated the idea of beauty with the name of
RAPHAEL. The resemblance struck everybody alike, even those who were
but slightly conversant with pictures, the moment they saw her. Taken
in detail, her features might be easily found fault with. Her eyes
might be pronounced too large, her mouth too small, her nose not
Grecian enough for some people's tastes. But the general effect of
these features, the shape of her head and face, and especially her
habitual expression, reminded all beholders at once, and irresistibly,
of that image of softness, purity, and feminine gentleness, which has
been engraven on all civilized memories by the "Madonnas" of Raphael.
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