under
the stress of travelling, she did not appear at the breakfast-table till every
one else had finished, the only question was, how Gwendolen's coffee and toast
should still be of the hottest and crispest; and when she appeared with her
freshly-brushed light-brown hair streaming backward and awaiting her mamma's
hand to coil it up, her long brown eyes glancing bright as a wave-washed onyx
from under their long lashes, it was always she herself who had to be tolerant -
to beg that Alice who sat waiting on her would not stick up her shoulders in
that frightful manner, and that Isabel instead of pushing up to her and asking
questions would go away to Miss Merry.
    Always she was the princess in exile, who in time of famine was to have her
breakfast-roll made of the finest-bolted flour from the seven thin ears of
wheat, and in a general decampment was to have her silver fork kept out of the
baggage. How was this to be accounted for? The answer may seem to lie quite on
the surface: - in her beauty, a certain unusualness about her, a decision of
will which made itself felt in her graceful movements and clear unhesitating
tones, so that if she came into the room on a rainy day when everybody else was
flaccid and the use of things in general was not apparent to them, there seemed
to be a sudden, sufficient reason for keeping up the forms of life; and even the
waiters at hotels showed the more alacrity in doing away with crumbs and creases
and dregs with struggling flies in them. This potent charm, added to the fact
that she was the eldest daughter, towards whom her mamma had always been in an
apologetic state of mind for the evils brought on her by a step-father, may seem
so full a reason for Gwendolen's domestic empire, that to look for any other
would be to ask the reason of daylight when the sun is shining. But beware of
arriving at conclusions without comparison. I remember having seen the same
assiduous, apologetic attention awarded to persons who were not at all beautiful
or unusual, whose firmness showed itself in no very graceful or euphonious way,
and who were not eldest daughters with a tender, timid mother, compunctious at
having subjected them to inconveniences. Some of them were a very common sort of
men. And the only point of resemblance among them all was a strong determination
to have what was pleasant, with a total fearlessness in making themselves
disagreeable or dangerous when they did not get it. Who is so much cajoled and
served