It has nothing to do with religion, nor with what we
commonly understand by spirit. It is not to be described or analyzed;
like the blue of heaven, it is the infinitely elusive property which is
the very secret and necessity of its existence.
Cornelia looked searchingly at this face, and, though much of its
subtlest charm must necessarily have been lost upon her, she saw a great
deal that gave her pleasure. She had never been subjected to that
awakening but coarsening process which teaches a girl to call herself a
beauty; but there is a certain amount of instinctive perception, in
these matters, and she could not but know that what had virtue to
gratify her would not lack in effect over others. Nor was she in the
habit of taking stock of herself in the looking-glass; only to-night she
seemed to have an especial motive in making or renewing her own
acquaintance.
At length she dropped her eyes, and, with nimble fingers and
swiftly-applied hair-pins, wound up her hair into its nocturnal knot.
She removed her ear-rings and rings, and put them into the vase; but
here reverie overtook her once more, and held her in a meditative
half-smile, until consciousness revived, and startled the blood into her
cheeks. She walked over to her little sofa, with dispatch and business
in her step, and sat down to unlace her boots.
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