Domestic fiction; Ireland -- Fiction; Land tenure -- Fiction; Landlord and tenant -- Fiction; Landowners -- Fiction
Fanny Wyndham was a very different creature. She, too, was proud, but
her pride was of another, if not of a less innocent cast; she was proud
of her own position; but it was as Fanny Wyndham, not as Lord Cashel’s
niece, or anybody’s daughter. She had been brought out in the
fashionable world, and liked, and was liked by, it; but she felt that
she owed the character which three years had given her, to herself, and
not to those around her. She stood as high as Lady Selina, though on
very different grounds. Any undue familiarity would have been quite as
impossible with one as with the other. Lady Selina chilled intruders to
a distance; Fanny Wyndham’s light burned with so warm a flame, that
butterflies were afraid to trust their wings within its reach. She was
neither so well read, nor so thoughtful on what she did read, as her
friend; but she could turn what she learned to more account, for the
benefit of others. The one, in fact, could please, and the other could
not.
Fanny Wyndham was above the usual height; but she did not look tall,
for her figure was well-formed and round, and her bust full. She had
dark-brown hair, which was never curled, but worn in plain braids,
fastened at the back of her head, together with the long rich folds
which were collected there under a simple comb. Her forehead was high,
and beautifully formed, and when she spoke, showed the animation of her
character. Her eyes were full and round, of a hazel colour, bright and
soft when she was pleased, but full of pride and displeasure when her
temper was ruffled, or her dignity offended. Her nose was slightly
_retroussé_ [23], but not so much so as to give to her that pertness,
of which it is usually the index. The line of her cheeks and chin was
very lovely: it was this which encouraged her to comb back that
luxuriant hair, and which gave the greatest charm to her face. Her
mouth was large, too large for a beauty, and therefore she was not a
regular beauty; but, were she talking to you, and willing to please
you, you could hardly wish it to be less. I cannot describe the shade
of her complexion, but it was rich and glowing; and, though she was not
a brunette, I believe that in painting her portrait, an artist would
have mixed more brown than other colours.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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