d
_and_ shoulders, both together. Not that his opinion was good for much
in tasty matters of this kind, for which reason he begged to apologize
for expressing it at all." In speaking thus of his opinion, the worthy
engraver surely depreciated himself most unjustly: for, if the father of
eight daughters cannot succeed in learning (philoprogenitively speaking)
to be a good judge of women, what man can?

However, there was one point on which Mr. Gimble, Lady Brambledown, Mr.
Bullivant, Mrs. Blyth's father, and hosts of friends besides, were all
agreed, without one discordant exception.

They unanimously asserted that the young lady's face was the nearest
living approach they had ever seen to that immortal "Madonna" face,
which has for ever associated the idea of beauty with the name of
RAPHAEL. The resemblance struck everybody alike, even those who were
but slightly conversant with pictures, the moment they saw her. Taken in
detail, her features might be easily found fault with. Her eyes might be
pronounced too large, her mouth too small, her nose not Grecian enough
for some people's tastes. But the general effect of these features,
the shape of her head and face, and especially her habitual expression,
reminded all beholders at once, and irresistibly, of that image of
softness, purity, and feminine gentleness, which has been engraven on
all civilized memories by the "Madonnas" of Raphael.

It was in consequence of this extraordinary resemblance, that her own
English name of Mary had been, from the first, altered and Italianized
by Mr. and Mrs. Blyth, and by all intimate friends, into "Madonna." One
or two extremely strict and extremely foolish people objected to any
such familiar application of this name, as being open, in certain
directions, to an imputation of irreverence. Mr. Blyth was not generally
very quick at an answer; but, on this occasion, he had three answers
ready before the objections were quite out of his friends' mouths.

In the first place, he said that he and his friends used the name only
in an artist-sense, and only with reference to Raphael's pictures.
In the next place, he produced an Italian dictionary, and showed that
"Madonna" had a second meaning in the language, signifying simply and
literally, "My lady." And, in conclusion, he proved historically, that
"Madonna" had been used in the old times as a prefix to the names of
Italian women; quoting, for example, "Madonna Pia," whom he happened to