people who are only in each other's company
for amusement, never really like each other so well, or esteem each
other so highly, as those who work together, and perhaps suffer
together."

"You speak God's truth," said I at last, "and you shall have your own
way, for it is the best way. Now, as a reward for such ready consent,
give me a voluntary kiss."

After some hesitation, natural to a novice in the art of kissing, she
brought her lips into very shy and gentle contact with my forehead; I
took the small gift as a loan, and repaid it promptly, and with generous
interest.

I know not whether Frances was really much altered since the time
I first saw her; but, as I looked at her now, I felt that she was
singularly changed for me; the sad eye, the pale cheek, the dejected
and joyless countenance I remembered as her early attributes, were quite
gone, and now I saw a face dressed in graces; smile, dimple, and
rosy tint, rounded its contours and brightened its hues. I had been
accustomed to nurse a flattering idea that my strong attachment to her
proved some particular perspicacity in my nature; she was not handsome,
she was not rich, she was not even accomplished, yet was she my life's
treasure; I must then be a man of peculiar discernment. To-night my eyes
opened on the mistake I had made; I began to suspect that it was only my
tastes which were unique, not my power of discovering and appreciating
the superiority of moral worth over physical charms. For me Frances
had physical charms: in her there was no deformity to get over; none of
those prominent defects of eyes, teeth, complexion, shape, which hold at
bay the admiration of the boldest male champions of intellect (for
women can love a downright ugly man if he be but talented); had she been
either "edentee, myope, rugueuse, ou bossue," my feelings towards
her might still have been kindly, but they could never have been
impassioned; I had affection for the poor little misshapen Sylvie, but
for her I could never have had love. It is true Frances' mental points
had been the first to interest me, and they still retained the strongest
hold on my preference; but I liked the graces of her person too. I
derived a pleasure, purely material, from contemplating the clearness
of her brown eyes, the fairness of her fine skin, the purity of her
well-set teeth, the proportion of her delicate form; and that pleasure
I could ill have dispensed with. It appeared, then, that I too was