His sister sat by the fire, her fancy-work in her lap,
and looked up at her brothers profile which showed against the brilliant
yellow light. It was a handsome face, young and fair and clear cut,
with wavy brown hair combed backwards and rippling down into that
outward curve at the ends which one associates with the artistic
temperament. There was refinement too in his slightly puckered eyes,
his dainty gold-rimmed _pince-nez_ glasses, and in the black velveteen
coat which caught the light so richly upon its shoulder. In his mouth
only there was something--a suspicion of coarseness, a possibility of
weakness--which in the eyes of some, and of his sister among them,
marred the grace and beauty of his features. Yet, as he was wont
himself to say, when one thinks that each poor mortal is heir to a
legacy of every evil trait or bodily taint of so vast a line of
ancestors, lucky indeed is the man who does not find that Nature
has scored up some long-owing family debt upon his features.
And indeed in this case the remorseless creditor had gone so far as to
exact a claim from the lady also, though in her case the extreme beauty
of the upper part of the face drew the eye away from any weakness which
might be found in the lower.
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