Great was the satisfaction which we all expressed at beholding so
admirable a man; great were the applauses which we bestowed upon the
workman with one consent; and great was the complacency with which
Glover himself regarded the work of his own hands. He thought, he
said, this would please us. Please us indeed it did, and so well did
it answer that after short trial Mrs. L. thinking that a second image
would render the whole garden secure, and moreover that it was not
good for her Man to be alone, directed Glover to make a woman also.
The woman accordingly was made. Flesh of his flesh and bone of his
bone, she could not be, the Man himself not being made of such
materials; but she was wood of his wood and plank of his plank,—which
was coming as nearly as possible to it, made of the same tree and
fashioned by the same hand.
The woman was in all respects a goodly mate for the man, except that
she seemed to be a few years older; she was rather below the mean
stature, in that respect resembling the Venus de Medicis; slender
waisted yet not looking as if she were tight-laced, nor so thin as to
denote ill health. Her dress was a gown of homely brown, up to the
neck. The artist had employed his brightest colours upon her face,
even the eyes and nose partook of that brilliant tint which is
sometimes called the roseate hue of health or exercise, sometimes the
purple light of love. The whites of her eyes were large. She also was
represented in a hat, but higher in the crown and broader in the rim
than the man's, and where his brim was turned up, her's had a downward
inclination giving a feminine character to that part of her dress.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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