صفحة 860 من 896

There were many women at that time, upon whom the time laid a

dreadfully disfiguring hand; but, there was not one among them

more to be dreaded than this ruthless woman, now taking her way

along the streets. Of a strong and fearless character, of shrewd

sense and readiness, of great determination, of that kind of

beauty which not only seems to impart to its possessor firmness

and animosity, but to strike into others an instinctive

recognition of those qualities; the troubled time would have

heaved her up, under any circumstances. But, imbued from her

childhood with a brooding sense of wrong, and an inveterate

hatred of a class, opportunity had developed her into a tigress.

She was absolutely without pity. If she had ever had the virtue

in her, it had quite gone out of her.