A Pair of Blue Eyes

Elfride had as her own the thoughtfulness which appears in the face of the Madonna della Sedia, without its rapture: the warmth and spirit of the type of woman’s feature most common to the beauties – mortal and immortal – of Rubens, without their insistent fleshiness. The characteristic expression of the female faces of Correggio – that of the yearning human thoughts that lie too deep for tears – was hers sometimes, but seldom under ordinary conditions.