"The gems do not correspond, I fear," said I to myself, as I moved
to another part of the room. "But who is Miss Gardiner?"
In the next moment, I was introduced to the young lady whose name
was in my thought. The face into which I looked was of that fine
oval which always pleases the eye, even where the countenance itself
does not light up well with the changes of thought. But, in this
case, a pair of calm, deep, living eyes, and lips of shape most
exquisitely delicate and feminine--giving warrant of a beautiful
soul--caused the face of Miss Gardiner to hold the vision as by a
spell. Low and very musical was her voice, and there was a
discrimination in her words, that lifted whatever she said above the
common-place, even though the subjects were of the hour.
I do not remember how long it was after my introduction to Miss
Gardiner, before I discovered that her only ornament was a small,
exquisitely cut cameo breast-pin, set in a circlet of pearls. There
was no obtrusive glitter about this. It lay more like an emblem than
a jewel against her bosom. It never drew your attention from her
face, nor dimmed, by contrast, the radiance of her soul-lit eyes. I
was charmed, from the beginning, with this young lady. Her thoughts
were real gems, rich and rare, and when she spoke there was the
flash of diamonds in her sentences; not the flash of mere brilliant
sayings, like the gleaming of a polished sword, but of living
truths, that lit up with their own pure radiance every mind that
received them.
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