that
universal influence which no rivalry can ever approach. On them really
depends, and by then is really preserved, that claim upon the sincere
respect and admiration of men, on which the power of the whole sex is
based--the power so often assumed by the many, so rarely possessed but
by the few.
It was thus with my sister. Thus, wherever she went, though without
either the inclination, or the ambition to shine, she eclipsed women
who were her superiors in beauty, in accomplishments, in brilliancy of
manners and conversation--conquering by no other weapon than the purely
feminine charm of everything she said, and everything she did.
But it was not amid the gaiety and grandeur of a London season that her
character was displayed to the greatest advantage. It was when she was
living where she loved to live, in the old country-house, among the old
friends and old servants who would every one of them have died a hundred
deaths for her sake, that you could study and love her best. Then, the
charm there was in the mere presence of the kind, gentle, happy young
English girl, who could enter into everybody's interests, and be
grateful for everybody's love, possessed its best and brightest
influence. At picnics, lawn-parties, little country gatherings of all
sorts, she was, in her own quiet, natural manner, always the presiding
spirit of general comfort and general friendship. Even the rigid laws
of country punctilio relaxed before her unaffected cheerfulness and
irresistible good-nature. She always contrived--nobody ever knew
how--to lure the most formal people into forgetting their formality,
and becoming natural for the rest of the day. Even a heavy-headed,
lumbering, silent country squire was not too much for her. She managed
to make him feel at his ease, when no one else would undertake the task;
she could listen patiently to his confused speeches about dogs, horses,
and the state of the crops, when other conversations were proceeding in
which she was really interested; she could receive any little
grateful attention that he wished to pay her--no matter how awkward or
ill-timed--as she received attentions from any one else, with a manner
which showed she considered it as a favour granted to her sex, not as a
right accorded to it.
So, again, she always succeeded in diminishing the long list of those
pitiful affronts and offences, which play such important parts in the
social drama of country society. She was a perfect
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