Page:Blanchard on L. E. L.pdf/238

238 With what rapidity would she utter such sentiments as the following:—'It ever seems so strange to me that people should mistake the semblance of excessive cheerfulness, when it is assumed only as a mask to conceal the real features of the wearer. When mirth takes a sarcastic form, it always gives me an idea of the speaker's own internal wretchedness or deep sense of injury; for when does the foam mantle highest on the wave and sparkle brightest in the sunshine? Is it not when that wave is passing over the jagged rock, and the rough stone, lurking beneath?'

"The last period, of any length, I spent under the same roof with L. E. L., was for a month immediately before her departure from England. Her mind and her time were necessarily so occupied, that we had only occasional glimpses of her own real self. Sometimes, however, she would throw off all that pressed upon her, and be entirely the L. E. L. of former days."

It has been remarked that it was only when with the frivolous that she assumed frivolity. The writer of the above recollections, therefore, must have seen her in her happier and more serious moods.

Mrs. S. C. Hall, commenting upon the portraits of her lamented friend, remarks,

"It is singular that so few portraits of this accomplished woman should have been painted. For nearly twenty years she occupied a large portion of public attention; and, during the whole of her career, was almost idolized by the young and warm-hearted. Although certainly not beautiful—perhaps she can scarcely be described as handsome—her countenance possessed that which an artist prizes above beauty, at least above the beauty that is without it—; her features were not regular, but they were pleasing and attractive at all times; and when animated, had a character approximating to loveliness. Her form, too, though petite, was graceful. She had a large acquaintance among artists, to whose