Sublime

Mrs. Thorpe was a widow, and not a very rich one; she was a good-humoured, well-meaning woman, and a very indulgent mother. Her eldest daughter had great personal beauty, and the younger ones, by pretending to be as handsome as their sister, imitating her air, and dressing in the same style, did very well.

it so happened that ‘a gentleman of honourable parentage’ had a daughter with just the right qualifications, she being ‘of excellent parts for musicke, her needle, and good discourse, also very beautiful and personable’.

Avdotya Romanovna was remarkably good looking; she was tall, strikingly well-proportioned, strong and self-reliant — the latter quality was apparent in every gesture, though it did not in the least detract from the grace and softness of her movements.