My greeting to you, and may the years be weaver's hands, which shall interlace and bind two lives into one complete pattern.
To the Sister of a Great Beauty
I am far from laughing, my dear girl, at your assertion that your position is little short of tragic.
To be the ordinary sister of an extraordinary beauty, is a position which calls for the exercise of all the great virtues in order to be borne with dignity, good taste, and serenity.
I remember seeing you and Pansy when you were ten and she twelve years of age. I foresaw what lay before you then, and have often wondered how you would meet the occasion when you were both "finished," and at home under the same roof, and socially launched. It was wise for your mother to separate you so early in life, and place you under different teachers, and in different schools.
It is difficult for a girl in her late childhood and early teens to use philosophy and religion to support her, when she is made a Cinderella by unthinking associates and friends, and forgotten and neglected while a more attractive sister is lionized.
Had you always walked in the shadow of your handsome sister until to-day, I fancy your disposition would have become warped with resentment and envy.
And perhaps your feelings for Pansy would have been less affectionate than now.