“We have compared Lela’s face to the rich portraiture of Guercino; Majoli’s suggests the pencil of that famous old Spanish master, Ribera, whose pictures of women were always a blending of the elegance of a court lady with the simplicity and naivete of a church devotee.  Half belle, half religieuse we may style her.

“And on what have these dainty minds been nurtured, and who have been their intellectual mentors?  Lela has been bred within a cloister’s walls, and foreign travel has polished both mind and manners.

“In no school has Majoli’s mind been formed, nor is she greatly indebted to learned professors for her mental attainments.  A mother’s love has quickened the budding intellect, a mother’s intelligence has trained and directed the unfolding powers.  The grace of foreign speech is on her tongue, and scenes and pictures of distant lands are enshrined in her memory.  Ancient lore has for her a peculiar charm; history is her delight; Plutarch, Josephus, Gibbon, Macaulay, she has conned well.  Poesy she loves much.  The poetry of the Bible, Dante, Schiller, Herbert, Browning, are her favorites.  In sacred books she finds sweet enjoyment.  The Fathers of the Church afford her great pleasure; St. Augustine, St. Basil, Thomas a Kempis, etc.  She has the grace of devotion, but her love of the Church is affected more by its aesthetical qualities than its theological dogmas.

“Lela is a passionate book-lover.  There are few modern writers that have not furnished entertainment to her accomplished mind, and she is not unacquainted with the best Latin and Greek authors.  English, German, and French literature are alike open to her.  Biography, essays, dramas, poetry, with more serious reading, occupy her time.  Virgil and Horace, Bacon, Shakespeare, Racine, Victor Hugo, Heine and George Eliot may be mentioned as among her preferences.

“But while we are attempting to portray some noticeable characteristics in Lela and Majoli, how are Celina and Guerrabella occupied?  You see Guerrabella has a pencil in her hand.  She is sketching a head; if we look closely, we shall probably recognize our own, grotesquely drawn, for there is no denying that our young genius is fond of caricaturing her friends.  Celina sits by a table; her large, open eyes have a distant, dreamy expression.  Her pen moves rapidly across the page; she is writing a Musical Recollection, we may presume.

“Guerrabella is the youngest of the group.  She is tall, picturesque, imposing.  Her face is radiant with blushes, dimples, and smiles.  She looks so fresh and beautiful that she might have set for Greuze’s picture of ‘Sweet Sixteen.’  A sense of thorough enjoyment flashes from the bright, blue-gray eyes, and is indicated by the rose-bloom on cheek and lips.  There is an air of strength and courage perceptible, and a certain dash in her manner that associates her with Scott’s favorite heroine, Di Vernon.  She has great mimic powers, and might adorn the histrionic stage.  Towards art and literature she seems equally attracted, and what she will eventually decide to follow we cannot now predict.  She will fail in nothing for want of talent.