The Straight Simplicity of Eve 
     
    
   
   
    
     Now she was grave, now gay, now stately, 
     
     now pensive. But she was always charm— 
     
     ing. Thrawn and twisted the old Gordon 
     
     stock might be, but it had at least this 
     
     one offshoot of perfect grace and sym- 
     
     metry. Her mind and heart, utterly un- 
     
     spoiled of the world, were as beautiful as 
     
     her face. All the ugliness of existence 
     
     had passed her by, shrined in her double 
     
     solitude of upbringing and muteness. 
     
    

    
     She was naturally quick and clever. 
     
     Delightful little flashes of wit and humour 
     
     sparkled out occasionally. She could be 
     
     whimsical—even charmingly capricious. 
     
     Sometimes innocent mischief glimmered 
     
     Out in the unfathomable deeps of her 
     
     blue eyes. Sarcasm, even, was not un— 
     
     known to her. Now and then she punc- 
     
     tured some harmless bubble of a young 
     
     man’s conceit or masculine superiority 
     
     with a biting little line of daintily written 
     
     script. 
     
    

    
     She assimilated the ideas in the books 
     
     they read, speedily, eagerly, and thor— 
     
    
   
   
    
     ”II";