98 _ £GLANTINE OR

You may perhaps think, my children, that Doralice
exaggerated a little in order to console Eglantine,
and that it is possible for us to preserve our beauty
after youth has gone. But no; beauty cannot exist
without youth. When we say that a woman of forty
is handsome, we should rather say was handsome ;
for theré cannot be real beauty without that brilliancy
of colour and freshness of complexion which are ir-
reparably lost with mature years, and which can be
preserved for any length of time only by exercising the
greatest care, and by sometimes sacrificing for it the
important duties of life. Compare then, my children,
this passing beauty that the slightest malady might
wither, and which at most is only lent us for a few
years, with that beauty of the soul which is ever with
us until we destroy it ourselves. It will be our consola-
tion, our guide through life, and will continue our
hope beyond the grave. No external beauty can of
itself give that noble expression to the eye which so
often moves ; the mind and heart must have all to do
with it. No, no; Doralice did not exaggerate ; she
said with reason that one must be almost deprived of
their senses to attach great value to a thing that may
be so soon lost for ever.

At the same time that Doralice exhorted her