'Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights.' I once met an old freak who said all sickness came from the devil.

I never could believe that, for my mother was an invalid during the last years of her life, and I can testify that her sickness was a blessing to many, and borne to the glory of God.

But I am, convinced all true beauty is God-given, and that is why the worship of beauty is to me a religion.

Nothing bad was ever truly beautiful; nothing good is ever really ugly." Jane smiled as she watched him, lying back in the golden sunlight, the very personification of manly beauty.

The absolute lack of self-consciousness, either for himself or for her, which allowed him to talk thus to the plainest woman of his acquaintance, held a vein of humour which diverted Jane.