Her wondering blue eyes, that
looked so sad in the piercing gas-light, appeared to have lost that
sadness in the mellow atmosphere of the Rectory dining-room. The tender
and touching stillness which her affliction had cast over her face,
seemed a little at variance with its childish immaturity of feature and
roundness of form, but harmonized exquisitely with the quiet smile
which seemed habitual to her when she was happy--gratefully and
unrestrainedly happy, as she now felt among the new friends who were
receiving her, not like a stranger and an inferior, but like a younger
sister who had been long absent from them.
She stood near the window, the center figure of the group, offering a
little slate that hung by her side, with a pencil attached to it, to
the rector's eldest daughter, who was sitting at her right hand on a
stool. The second of the young ladies knelt on the other side, with
both her arms round the dog's neck; holding him back as he stood in
front of the child, so as to prevent him from licking her face, which
he had made several resolute attempts to do, from the moment when she
first entered the room. Both the Doctor's daughters were healthy, rosy
English beauties in the first bloom of girlhood; and both were attired
in the simplest and prettiest muslin dresses, very delicate in color
and pattern.
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