Beulah - Page 83/348

There was a dawning light in Clara's eyes which showed that, though

as yet a mere girl in years, she had waked to the consciousness of

emotions which belong to womanhood. She was pretty, and of course

she knew it, for I am skeptical of those characters who grow up to

mature beauty, all unsuspicious of the fatal dower, and are some day

startled by a discovery of their possessions. She knew, too, that

female loveliness was an all-potent spell, and, depressing as were

the circumstances of her life and situation, she felt that a

brighter lot might be hers, without any very remarkable or seemingly

inconsistent course of events.