l lights; pure and clear, it had also a soft warmth of color which
was indescribably rich. The lustrous black braids of Ines de Duero had
been changed in her grand-daughter to braids equally thick, but in color
a bright brown; not the brown that is but golden hair grown darker, nor
that other well-known shade, neither light nor dark, which covers the
heads of so many Americans that it might almost be called the national
color; this brown had always been bright, had never changed; the head of
the little Garda of two years old had showed a flossy mass of the same
hue. This hair curled slightly through all its length, which gave the
braids a rippled appearance. It had, besides, the beauty of growing low
and thickly at the temples and over the forehead. The small head it
covered was poised upon a throat which was not a mere point of union, an
unimportant or lean angle to be covered by a necklace or collar; this
throat was round, distinct in outline, its fairness beautiful not only
in front, but also behind, under and at the edges of the hair where the
comb had lifted the thick, soft mass and swept it up to take its place
in the braids above. Garda's features were fine, but they were not of
the Greek type, save that the beautiful forehead was low; the mouth was
not small, the lips full, delicately curved. When she smiled, these lips
had a marked sweetness of expression. They parted over brilliantly white
teeth, which, with the colors in her hair and complexion, were the
direct gifts of English ancestors, as her dark eyes with their long,
curling, dark lashes, the thickness of her brown braids, her rounded
figure with its graceful unhurrying gait and high-arched little feet,
were inheritances from the Dueros.

But written words are not the artist's colors; they can never paint the
portrait which all the world can see. A woman may be described, and by a
truthful pen, as possessing large eyes, regular features, and so on
through the list, and yet that woman may move through life quite without
charm, while another who is chronicled, and with equal truthfulness, as
having a profile which is far from showing accordance with artists'
rules, may receive through all her days the homage paid to loveliness
alone. The bare catalogue of features, tints, and height does not
include the subtle spell whose fulness crowns the one, while its lack
mars the other, and a narrator, therefore, while allowing himself as
detailed a delineation as it