in Zenobia's character, than if a great
diamond had sparkled among her hair.
    Her hand, though very soft, was larger than most women would like to have -
or than they could afford to have - though not a whit too large in proportion
with the spacious plan of Zenobia's entire development. It did one good to see a
fine intellect (as hers really was, although its natural tendency lay in another
direction than towards literature) so fitly cased. She was, indeed, an admirable
figure of a woman, just on the hither verge of her richest maturity, with a
combination of features which it is safe to call remarkably beautiful, even if
some fastidious persons might pronounce them a little deficient in softness and
delicacy. But we find enough of those attributes, everywhere. Preferable - by
way of variety, at least - was Zenobia's bloom, health, and vigor, which she
possessed in such overflow that a man might well have fallen in love with her
for their sake only. In her quiet moods, she seemed rather indolent; but when
really in earnest, particularly if there were a spice of bitter feeling, she
grew all alive, to her finger-tips.
    »I am the first-comer,« Zenobia went on to say, while her smile beamed
warmth upon us all; »so I take the part of hostess, for to-day, and welcome you
as if to my own fireside. You shall be my guests, too, at supper. Tomorrow, if
you please, we will be brethren and sisters, and begin our new life from
day-break.«
    »Have we our various parts assigned?« asked some one.
    »Oh, we of the softer sex,« responded Zenobia, with her mellow, almost broad
laugh - most delectable to hear, but not in the least like an ordinary woman's
laugh - »we women (there are four of us here, already) will take the domestic
and indoor part of the business, as a matter of course. To bake, to boil, to
roast, to fry, to stew - to wash, and iron, and scrub, and sweep, and, at our
idler intervals, to repose ourselves on knitting and sewing - these, I suppose,
must be feminine occupations for the present. By-and-by, perhaps, when our
individual adaptations begin to develop themselves, it may be that some of us,
who wear the petticoat, will go afield, and leave the weaker brethren to take
our places in the kitchen