And yet there was something about her bearing, which would have prevented any one from imagining that she was other than a high-born lady.

There was strong evidence of intellect in her face; and it was doubtless from within that came that quiet dignity of bearing that marked her.
And it was a dignity compatible and combined with the most perfect gentleness and almost humility of manner;--a dignity arising not from the consciousness of any high position or high qualities, but from the consciousness of that sort of gentle passive strength, which knows that no external circumstance, or difficulty, or pressure will avail to make its owner step but a hair's breadth aside from the path which conscience has marked as that of right and duty.
Violante was tall and slender, but her figure was not graceful.

People did not say of her that she was slender; they said she was thin.

And that was incontestably true.

She was very thin.