and the sensualist.
Fortunately, the sole defect of her form was not apparent at a distance:
that defect was in the hand; it had not the usual faults of female
youthfulness,--the superfluity of flesh, the too rosy healthfulness
of colour,--on the contrary, it was small and thin; but it was,
nevertheless, more the hand of a man than a woman: the shape had a man's
nervous distinctness, the veins swelled like sinews, the joints of the
fingers were marked and prominent. In that hand it almost seemed as if
the iron force of the character betrayed itself. But, as we have said,
this slight defect, which few, if seen, would hypercritically notice,
could not, of course, be perceptible as she moved slowly up the room;
and Vernon's eye, glancing over the noble figure, rested upon the
face. Was it handsome? Was it repelling? Strange that in feature it
had pretensions to the highest order of beauty, and yet even that
experienced connoisseur in female charms was almost as puzzled what
sentence to pronounce. The hair, as was the fashion of the day,
clustered in profuse curls over the forehead, but could not conceal a
slight line or wrinkle between the brows; and this line, rare in women
at any age, rare even in men at hers, gave an expression at once of
thought and sternness to the whole face. The eyebrows themselves were
straight, and not strongly marked, a shade or two perhaps too light,--a
fault still more apparent in the lashes; the eyes were large, full,
and though bright, astonishingly calm and deep,--at least in ordinary
moments; yet withal they wanted the charm of that steadfast and open
look which goes at once to the heart and invites its trust,--their
expression was rather vague and abstracted. She usually looked aslant
while she spoke, and this, which with some appears but shyness, in
one so self-collected had an air of falsehood. But when, at times, if
earnest, and bent rather on examining those she addressed than guarding
herself from penetration, she fixed those eyes upon you with sudden and
direct scrutiny, the gaze impressed you powerfully, and haunted you
with a strange spell. The eye itself was of a peculiar and displeasing
colour,--not blue, nor gray, nor black, nor hazel, but rather of that
cat-like green which is drowsy in the light, and vivid in the shade.
The profile was purely Greek, and so seen, Lucretia's beauty seemed
incontestable; but in front face, and still more when inclined between
the two, all the feat