Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER II. In the days that followed on the writing of that letter I was able to form a clear opinion both of Jadwiga's looks and of her character. About the former I had no difficulty in making up my mind. In the moment that she made her appearance at tea that afternoon, rested, in fresh attire and with her hair in order, I felt satisfied that she was beautiful, although not in any style that I had hitherto had personal experience of. Perhaps she was almost more graceful and charming than, strictly speaking, beautiful; it is even quite conceivable that but for the light behind it, that delicately pale face with the rather full lips and the unimportant nose might have missed being beautiful. Anulka had the same cast of features and almost the same colour of eyes, only with a keener look in them; but it was quite clear even now that, although she might possibly become what is termed "piquante," she could never be beautiful, and just because that light was awanting. To my mind Jadwiga had something of the appearance of a plant grown up in the dark: her beautifully clear complexion had become over-white from want of fresh air, and over-soft, too, as I gradually found out. Constitutionals are unknown things in Poland, and nobody in their senses thinks of going out except in fine weather, by which is understood not only absence of rain, but also of wind or mud or dust, or anything beyond the most moderate frost. As the winter lasts quite six months, it is easy to calculate the amount of fresh air imbibed by a regulation Polish lady. Except on the balmiest summer afternoons or the most tepid moonlight nights, going out seems in general to be considered in the light of a necessary evil. Jadwiga's face looked as if it had never encountered a cutting wind, and probably it never had....