Uncle Piper of Piper's Hill; An Australian Novel Volume 1 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1889 edition. Excerpt: ...to emanate from her as she trod. And wherein lay the secret of it all? In the French dressing-gown of pale pink and blue, she was trailing in a line of colour behind her on the grass? In the blue satin shoes, with heels only permissible on china? In the flesh-tones so admirably contrasted on her face, in their blending of pink and white, as betrayed to Mr. Piper, when his glass was wandering over her? No Yet I think it must have been that all these things were such perfect complements to a woman in the flush of youth and health. Drape the dressing-gown around other than firm white flesh, dispose the flaxen wig above a shrivelled face, and then look, if you will, for the light-diffusing potency. Failing which it must still be allowed that French dressing-gowns and satin shoes are amazing helps to a pretty woman, which, I may add, for the comfort of all who are not modelled upon the Greek goddess type, it is very possible to be without in any way competing with a Diana. And to Laura they were more than helps--they were almost props, her main charm, as I have said, lying for the most part in her colouring. "As handsome as a picture," men say, implying that it is in the warmth of tone, as well as in the grace of the outline, that handsomeness--properly speaking--has its domain. "As handsome as a statue," no one would say, because the beauty breathed by passionless marble is less of the kind that paints itself on the eye than of the kind which touches some inward sensibility. "As beautzful as a statue," we say of that beauty which, following Victor Hugo's idea, is the embodiment of the absolute, and may reach, like an eternal truth, even the perceptions of the colour-blind, or of one groping in the...