That Mr. Franklin was in love, on his side, nobody who saw and heard him

could doubt. The difficulty was to fathom Miss Rachel. Let me do myself

the honour of making you acquainted with her; after which, I will leave

you to fathom for yourself--if you can.

My young lady's eighteenth birthday was the birthday now coming, on

the twenty-first of June. If you happen to like dark women (who, I am

informed, have gone out of fashion latterly in the gay world), and if

you have no particular prejudice in favour of size, I answer for Miss

Rachel as one of the prettiest girls your eyes ever looked on. She was

small and slim, but all in fine proportion from top to toe. To see her

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sit down, to see her get up, and specially to see her walk, was enough

to satisfy any man in his senses that the graces of her figure (if you

will pardon me the expression) were in her flesh and not in her clothes.

Her hair was the blackest I ever saw. Her eyes matched her hair. Her

nose was not quite large enough, I admit. Her mouth and chin were (to

quote Mr. Franklin) morsels for the gods; and her complexion (on the

same undeniable authority) was as warm as the sun itself, with this

great advantage over the sun, that it was always in nice order to look

at. Add to the foregoing that she carried her head as upright as a dart,

in a dashing, spirited, thoroughbred way--that she had a clear voice,

with a ring of the right metal in it, and a smile that began very

prettily in her eyes before it got to her lips--and there behold the

portrait of her, to the best of my painting, as large as life!

And what about her disposition next? Had this charming creature no

faults? She had just as many faults as you have, ma'am--neither more nor

less.

To put it seriously, my dear pretty Miss Rachel, possessing a host

of graces and attractions, had one defect, which strict impartiality

compels me to acknowledge. She was unlike most other girls of her age,

in this--that she had ideas of her own, and was stiff-necked enough to

set the fashions themselves at defiance, if the fashions didn't suit her

views. In trifles, this independence of hers was all well enough; but

in matters of importance, it carried her (as my lady thought, and as I

thought) too far. She judged for herself, as few women of twice her age

judge in general; never asked your advice; never told you beforehand

what she was going to do; never came with secrets and confidences to

anybody, from her mother downwards. In little things and great, with

people she loved, and people she hated (and she did both with equal

heartiness), Miss Rachel always went on a way of her own, sufficient for

herself in the joys and sorrows of her life. Over and over again I have

heard my lady say, "Rachel's best friend and Rachel's worst enemy are,

one and the other--Rachel herself."




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