me a calm woman, a slow woman,--a
lazy, majestic woman. Show me a gracious virgin bearing a lily;
not a leering giggler frisking a rattle. A lively woman would be
the death of me.... Why shouldn't the Sherrick be stupid, I say?
About great beauty there should always reign a silence. As you look
at the great stars, the great ocean, any great scene of nature, you
hush, sir. You laugh at a pantomime, but you are still in a temple.
When I saw the great Venus of the Louvre, I thought,--Wert thou
alive, O goddess, thou shouldst never open those lovely lips but to
speak lowly, slowly; thou shouldst never descend from that pedestal
but to walk stately to some near couch, and assume another attitude
of beautiful calm. To be beautiful is enough. If a woman can do
that well; who shall demand more from her? You don't want a rose to
sing. And I think wit is as out of place where there's great
beauty; as I wouldn't have a queen to cut jokes on her
throne.--_The Newcomes._

And so it is,--a pair of bright eyes with a dozen glances suffice
to subdue a man; to enslave him, and inflame him; to make him even
forget; they dazzle him so that the past becomes straightway dim to
him; and he would give all his life to possess 'em.--_Henry
Esmond._

She is as good a little creature as can be. She is never out of
temper; I don't think she is very wise; but she is uncommonly
pretty, and her beauty grows on you.... I look at her like a little
wild-flower in a field,--like a little child at play, sir. Pretty
little tender nursling. If I see her passing in the street I feel
as if I would like some fellow to be rude to her that I might have
the pleasure of knocking him down. She is like a little songbird,
sir,--a tremulous, fluttering little linnet that you would take
into your hand, and smooth its little plumes, and let it perch on
your finger and sing.--_The Newcomes._

That fine blush which is her pretty symbol of youth, modesty, and
beauty.... I never saw such a beautiful violet as that of her eyes.
Her complexion is of the pink of the blush-rose.--_The Newcomes._

He thought and wondered at the way in which women play with men,
and coax them and win them and drop them.--_Pendennis._

It was this lady's disposition to think kindnesses, and devise
sil