, the Sister of Charity." The repose of her
manner made this sympathy more effective. Hers was not a stormy nature,
but calm and equable. If she had emotion to master, it was mastered in
secret, and not a ripple on the surface betrayed the agitation beneath.
She had no nervous likes or dislikes, no changeful humors, few unequal
moods. She did not sparkle and then die out. The fire was always kindled
on the hearth, the lamp serenely burning. Some women charm by their
mutability; she attracted by her uniformity. But in her uniformity there
was no monotony. Like the continuous murmur of a brook, it gladdened as
well as soothed.

It was probably these sweet womanly qualities, together with the
meekness with which she bore her honors, that endeared her to her
feminine friends. All her life had been a series of triumphs, which were
not won by any conscious effort on her part, but were spontaneous gifts
of fortune,--

"As though a shower of fairy wreaths
Had fallen upon her from the sky."

Yet her manner was entirely free from pretension or self-assertion.

It is not one of the least remarkable things about Madame Recamier, that
one who had been so petted from childhood, so exposed to pernicious
influences, should have continued unspoiled by adulation, uncorrupted by
example. The gay life she led was calculated to make her selfish and
arrogant, yet she was to an eminent degree self-sacrificing and gentle.
Constant in her affections, she never lost a friend through waywardness,
or alienated any by indifference. It has been prettily said of her, that
she brought the art of friendship to perfection. Coquettish she
was,--seldom capricious. Her coquetry was owing more to an instinctive
desire to please than to any systematic attempt to swell the list of her
conquests. She had received the gift of fascination at her birth: and
can a woman be fascinating who has not a touch of coquetry? It was as
natural in Madame Recamier to charm as it was to breathe. It was a
necessity of her nature, which her unnatural position developed and
fostered to a reprehensible extent. But while she permitted herself to
be loved, and rejoiced in the consciousness of this power, she never
carried her flirtations so far as to lose her own self-respect or the
respect of her admirers. She was ever dignified and circumspect, though
gracious and captivating. To most of her lovers, therefore, she was more
a goddess whom they worshipped than a woman w