July 8.

While looking over a box of old letters and newspapers this morning I came across a little sketch descriptive of our quartette, written last winter for a New York journal.  This sketch, or “Pen Portraits,” as it was styled, veils our identity under fictitious names, the initials only being preserved, and although it passes over our imperfections and very much exaggerates our accomplishments, still it contains, I think, so much that is characteristic that I will preserve it by copying it into my journal.  The writer commenced with a description of mamma’s room in Cottage Place, and dwelt particularly upon a picture of uncle hanging over the mantelpiece, but that portion of the sketch has been torn off and lost.

. . . . . .  “But let us regard the living pictures.   You see that
youthful group!   A group to inspire a poet or painter!   They are
four—­they are cousins.   Two are orphans; you see a resemblance to the
face in the frame wreathed in immortelles.   We will first observe
those two that sit with arms entwined, smiling up into each other’s
eyes.   It is the gentle Lela[1] and her cousin Majoli, belle Majoli
we may call her.   These cousins are nigh the same age, and their hearts
beat in sweet accord.   And there is a certain likeness, spiritual more
than physical—­for Majoli is taller and slighter, and fairer, too, if
we reckon by the hue of the hair and color of the eyes.

“Lela has soft, soliciting, brown eyes; Majoli is azure-eyed, laughing or languid according to her varying mood.  Lela’s face is pale as moonbeams; filial solicitude and divine sorrow have left their chastening impression upon her exquisite lineaments.  Her countenance is Madonna-like in purity, ingenuousness, and self-abnegation.

“Majoli’s delicate features are untouched by pain or care, and though her spiritual countenance is often tinged with melancholy, no harsh experience has traced those pensive lines.  ’Tis but the soul’s limning—­a musical nature is hers, emotional and imaginative.

“Lela’s head is large, though not unfeminine, and the magnificent wealth of tawny-colored hair reminds one of Guercino’s Holy Magdalen.  She has pretty, modest ways of looking down under those pale, drooping lids with her calm, confiding eyes, and if the mouth is somewhat large, the teeth are white and even, and the lips are coral-tinted.  The nose is straight and slender, and suggests the chisel of Phidias, and from the expansive brow we infer a broad culture and comprehensive understanding.  It is the seat of Philosophy, as well as the throne of the Muses.

“Majoli’s head is smaller than Lela’s, but its pose is aristocratic and graceful.  The blonde hair is artistically coiffed, and though the features are not strikingly regular, there is sympathy and great sweetness in the face, and art and refinement are expressed even by the slim, pale hands.  An airy, lithesome figure she has, and the beat of her footfall is cadenced to the measure of joyous music.  Frail she seems compared with Lela’s well-rounded figure, but if she has not equal strength, she has elasticity; and if more energy and power is indicated by the physiognomy of Lela, Majoli has ambition and judgment to compensate.