Such as she was,--beauty or no
beauty--her own mind on the subject was made up, and she had resolved
long since that the gift of personal loveliness had not been
bestowed upon her. And yet after a fashion she was proud of her own
appearance. She knew that she looked like a lady, and she knew also
that she had all that command of herself which health and strength
can give to a woman when she is without feminine affectation.
Lady Chiltern, in describing her to Phineas Finn, had said that she
talked Italian, and wrote for the _Times_. The former assertion
was, no doubt, true, as Miss Palliser had passed some years of her
childhood in Florence; but the latter statement was made probably
with reference to her capability rather than her performance. Lady
Chiltern intended to imply that Miss Palliser was so much better
educated than young ladies in general that she was able to express
herself intelligibly in her own language. She had been well educated,
and would, no doubt, have done the _Times_ credit had the _Times_
chosen to employ her.
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