keen intelligence and uncommon
strength of character, which, despite her youth, she had exhibited on
more than one occasion. She was a merry-hearted, spirited, independent
kind of a girl with decided views of her own regarding right and wrong
and with the courage to express them. As the poet wrote:

Her glossy hair was clustered o'er her brow
Bright with intelligence and fair and smooth;
Her eyebrow's shape was the aerial bow,
Her cheek all purple with the beam of youth
Mounting, at times, to a transparent glow,
As if her veins ran lightning.

Two sisters more unlike in character and tastes it would be almost
impossible to discover. Fanny, the elder, lacked not only Virginia's
good looks, and also her brains. Yet she was good-natured and
easy-going, and, as long as she had her own way, managed to get along
with everybody. She went through the lower grades of public school,
but did not shine as a particularly bright pupil, evincing little love
for books, and shirking study when possible. Her fondness for
amusement and her uncultivated taste also led to her associating
habitually with companions beneath her socially. She was a thoroughly
good girl. A vulgar allusion would have shocked her, an impertinence
she would have quickly resented; yet she seemed of a coarser fibre
than the rest of the family, the reason for which, seeing that both
girls had equal advantages and opportunities, only an expert
psychologist could explain. She had gone through school mechanically
as an unpleasant task to be gotten over with as soon as possible,
taking no interest in her work, and when she came out her brain was a
sluggish and unresponsive as one might expect. Well aware of her
shortcomings, she made light of them, insisting laughingly that she
was the dunce of the family and Virginia its genius. She would do the
drudgery of housekeeping while her sister went to college.

There was no bitterness, no jealousy in this apparent rivalry. Fanny
was devoted to her little sister and proud of her cleverness. She
declared that one day Virginia would make a brilliant marriage and
then she could pay it all back. That Virginia should ultimately go to
college had been fully determined on. Everything attracted her to a
liberal education. She was ambitious; she craved knowledge and showed
talent in almost everything--in music, composition, painting. To her a
liberal education would mean everything--the widening of her mental
horiz