Perhaps--" Of what possibilities will not a young girl dream at the dictation of her heart?
And as she saw the sharp lines of her profile softening into loveliness, the color fluctuating in her cheeks even at her thoughts, her thin, feeble arms growing white and firm, and the rounded grace of womanhood appearing in all her form, she began to hope that she could endure comparison with Miss Wildmere, even on her lower plane of material beauty.

But Madge had too much mind to be content with Miss Wildmere's standard.

She coveted outward attractiveness chiefly that the casket might secure attention to its gems.

The days of languid, desultory reading and study were over, and she determined to know at least a few things well.
It was to music, however, that she gave her chief attention, since she believed that for this art she had some positive talent A German in the pursuit of health had drifted to the remote southern city.

He was past middle age, but had retained through numberless disappointments and discouragements the one enthusiasm of his life; and in Madge he found a pupil after his own heart.