He gave me a rueful look, and, without replying, took me downstairs. Miss Russell sat by the table looking over a volume of prints; she just raised her eyes to say quietly—
"I am glad you are well again, Daisy," but took no other notice of me.
Cornelius laid me down on the couch, and sitting on the edge, asked me how I felt.
"Very well, Cornelius," I replied, and half rising, I passed my arms around his neck and kissed him. He returned the caress, and at the same time gently tried to make me lie down again. I detected the uneasy look he cast at the mirror over the mantle-piece which we both faced; I wanted to look too; he held me down tenderly, but firmly.
"Not yet, my pet," he said with some emotion, "you must promise not to look at yourself until I tell you."
The truth flashed on me: I was disfigured; I know not how it had never occurred to me before. I burst into tears, and hid my face in the pillow of the sofa. Cornelius vainly tried to comfort me: I would not even look up at him; to be told by him, and before her, of my disgrace, was too bitter, too galling.
"Shall we love you less?" asked Cornelius.
"Besides, what is beauty?" inquired Kate.
Miriam said nothing.
I did not regret beauty, which had never been mine to lose, but I lamented the woful change from plainness to downright ugliness. "I know I am like Mr. Trim," I despairingly exclaimed,—"without eyebrows or eyelashes."