Page:Pen, pencil, baton and mask; biographical sketches (IA penpencilbatonma00blaciala).pdf/93

Rh Grand has fully verified these expectations, and proved that bon sang ne peut pas mentir by making for herself early in life a distinguished and unique name in literature.

Highly educated and accustomed from childhood to associate with cultured people, she was reared, so to speak, in an artistic as well as in a good social atmosphere, which has imbued her whole being, and led her to cultivate to the uttermost the intellectual gifts for which she is so renowned.

With every womanly grace and charm, a very gentle, quiet manner, and a low, musical voice, the young author is in herself a proof that it is generally the most highly educated of her sex who are the most refined; she holds the strongest opinions on this point, and maintains earnestly and on all occasions, that there is no reason why women who have attained unto knowledge should lose any of the charm of their feminine attributes, and that culture should not only stimulate them to increased efforts to stand by each other at all times and seasons, but also to preserve each in herself, in all its strength and glory, the respect and reverence due to womanhood.

'I always think,' she remarks quietly, that women who cultivate the best there is within themselves, will do more with a word than the too combative with their insistence and arguments, and they should never let it be supposed that because they advocate the "higher education," it unfits them for domestic duties or renders them unable to handle a baby, or darn a stocking. As it happens,' she adds, with a smile, I can manage to do both, I think.'

Sarah Grand's surroundings are in complete harmony with her opinions. In one of the oldest roads of historic Kensington, there has lately been erected a gigantic block of buildings that stand well back from the noisy hum of traffic, and by reason of their great height ensure the peace and quiet so necessary to a student. At the top