e future.

Between the table and the Marquise a tall, beautiful girl sat at her
tapestry frame; sometimes she drew back from her work, sometimes she
bent over it, and her hair, picturesque in its ebony smoothness and
darkness, caught the light of the lamp. Helene was a picture in herself.
In her beauty there was a rare distinctive character of power and
refinement. Though her hair was gathered up and drawn back from her
face, so as to trace a clearly marked line about her head, so thick and
abundant was it, so recalcitrant to the comb, that it sprang back in
curl-tendrils to the nape of her neck. The bountiful line of eyebrows
was evenly marked out in dark contrasting outline upon her pure
forehead. On her upper lip, beneath the Grecian nose with its
sensitively perfect curve of nostril, there lay a faint, swarthy shadow,
the sign-manual of courage; but the enchanting roundness of contour, the
frankly innocent expression of her other features, the transparence
of the delicate carnations, the voluptuous softness of the lips, the
flawless oval of the outline of the face, and with these, and more than
all these, the saintlike expression in the girlish eyes, gave to her
vigorous loveliness the distinctive touch of feminine grace, that
enchanting modesty which we look for in these angels of peace and love.
Yet there was no suggestion of fragility about her; and, surely, with
so grand a woman's frame, so attractive a face, she must possess a
corresponding warmth of heart and strength of soul.

She was as silent as her schoolboy brother. Seemingly a prey to the
fateful maiden meditations which baffle a father's penetration and even
a mother's sagacity, it was impossible to be certain whether it was the
lamplight that cast those shadows that flitted over her face like thin
clouds over a bright sky, or whether they were passing shades of secret
and painful thoughts.

Husband and wife had quite forgotten the two older children at that
moment, though now and again the General's questioning glance traveled
to that second mute picture; a larger growth, a gracious realization,
as it were, of the hopes embodied in the baby forms rioting in the
foreground. Their faces made up a kind of living poem, illustrating
life's various phases. The luxurious background of the salon, the
different attitudes, the strong contrasts of coloring in the faces,
differing with the character of differing ages, the modeling of the
forms brought into high