Woman feels and speaks with the infallibility which is the tender
instinct of the heart.--_Les Misérables._
What is a husband but the pilot in the voyage of matrimony? Wife,
let your fine weather be your husband's smiles.--_Toilers of the
Sea._
No one knows like a woman how to say things which are at once
gentle and deep. Gentleness and depth,--in these things the whole
of woman is contained, and it is heaven.--_Les Misérables._
Beauty heightened by simplicity is ineffable, and nothing is so
adorable as a beauteous, innocent maiden, who walks along
unconsciously, holding in her hand the key of Paradise.--_Les
Misérables._
She had the prettiest little hands in the world, and little feet
to match them. Sweetness and goodness reigned throughout her
person; ... her occupation was only to live her daily life; her
accomplishments were the knowledge of a few songs; her intellectual
gifts were summed up in her simple innocence.--_Toilers of the
Sea._
The coquette is blind: she does not see her wrinkles.--_By Order of
the King._
A mother's arms are made of tenderness, and children sleep soundly
in them.--_Les Misérables._
There are moments when a woman accepts, like a sombre and resigned
duty, the worship of love.--_Les Misérables._
She was pale with that paleness which is like the transparency of a
divine life in an earthly face.... A soul standing in the
dawn.--_By Order of the King._
He looked at her, and saw nothing but her. This is love; one may be
carried away for a moment by the importunity of some other idea,
but the beloved one enters, and all that does not appertain to her
presence immediately fades away, without her dreaming that perhaps
she is effacing in us a world.--_By Order of the King._
She walked on with a light and free step, so little suggestive of
the burden of life that it might easily be seen that she was young.
Her movements possessed that subtle grace which indicates the most
delicate of all transitions--the soft intermingling, as it-were,
of two twilights,--the passage from the condition of a child to
that of womanhood.--_Toilers of the Sea._
She had never been pretty, but her whole life, which had been but a
succession of pious works, had eventually cast over her a species
of whiteness and brightness, and in growing older she had acquired
what may be called the beauty of goodness. What had been thinness
in her youth had became in her maturity transparency, and through
this transparency the angel could be seen.--_Les Misérables._
A ray of happiness was visible upon her face. Never had she
appeared more beautiful. Her features were remarkable for
prettiness rather than what is called beauty. Their fault, if fault
it be, lay in a certain excess of grace.... The ideal virgin is the
transfiguration of a face like this. Dèruchette, touched by her
sorrow and love, seemed to have caught that higher and more holy
expression. It was the difference between the field daisy and the
lily.--_Toilers of the Sea._
The glance of a woman resembles certain wheels which are apparently
gentle but are formidable.... You come, you go, you dream, you
speak, you laugh, and all in a minute you feel yourself caught, and
it is all over with you. The wheel holds you, the glance has caught
you.--_Les Misérables._
She had listened to nothing, but mothers hear certain things
without listening.--_Ninety-Three._
She was really a respectable, firm, equitable, and just person,
full of that charity which consists in giving, but not possessing
to the same extent the charity which comprehends and pardons.--_Les
Misérables._
She seemed a vision scarcely embodied; ... in her fairness, which
amounted almost to serenity of her look; ... in the sacred
innocence of her smile, she was almost an angel, and yet just a
woman.--_By Order of the King._
The girl becomes a maiden, fresh and joyous as the lark. Noting her
movements, we feel as if it were good of her not to fly away. The
dear familiar companion moves at her own sweet will about the
house; flits from branch to branch, or rather from room to room;
goes to and fro; approaches and retires.... She asks a question and
is answered; is asked something in return, and chirps a reply. It
is delightful to chat with her when tired of serious talk; for this
creature carries with her something of her skyey element. She is,
as it were, a thread of gold interwoven with your sombre thoughts;
you feel almost grateful to her for her kindness in not making
herself invisible, when it would be so easy for her to be even
impalpable; for the beautiful is a necessity of life. There is in
the world no function more important than that of being
charming.... To shed joy around, to radiate happiness, to cast
light upon dark days, to be the golden thread of our destiny, and
the very spirit of grace and harmony, is not this to render a
service?--_Toilers of the Sea._
She scarcely knew, perhaps, the meaning of the word love, and yet
not unwillingly ensnared those about her in the toils.--_Toilers of
the Sea._
She stopped. She walked back a few paces, stopped again; she
inclined her head, with those thoughtful eyes which look attentive
yet see nothing.... Her lowered eyelids had that vague contraction
which suggests a tear checked in its course, or a thought
suppressed.... Her face, which might inspire adoration, seemed
meditative, like portraits of the Virgin.--_Toilers of the Sea._
She broke the bread into two fragments, and gave them to the
children, who ate with avidity. "She has kept none for herself,"
grumbled the sergeant. "Because she is not hungry," said a soldier.
"Because she is a mother," said the sergeant.--_Ninety-Three._
Extreme simplicity touches on extreme coquetry.... They did not
speak, they did not bow, they did not know each other, but they
met; and like the stars in the heavens, they lived by looking at
each other. It was thus that she gradually became a woman, and was
developed into a beautiful and loving woman, conscious of her
beauty and ignorant of her love. She was a coquette into the
bargain, through her innocence.--_Les Misérables._
Does not beauty confer a benefit upon us, even by the simple fact
of being beautiful?--Here and there we meet with one who possesses
that fairy-like power of enchanting all about her; sometimes she is
ignorant herself of this magical influence, which is, however, for
that reason only the more perfect. Her presence lights up the home;
her approach is like cheerful warmth; she passes by, and we are
content; she stays awhile, and we are happy.--_Toilers of the Sea._
To behold her is to live; she is the Aurora with a human face. She
has no need to do more than simply to be, she makes an Eden of the
house; Paradise breathes from her: and she communicates this
delight to all, without taking any greater trouble than that of
existing beside them. Is it not a thing divine to have a smile
which, none know how, has the power to lighten the weight of that
enormous chain which all the living, in common, drag behind
them?--_Toilers of the Sea._
On the day when a woman who passes before you emits light as she
walks you are lost, for you love. You have from that moment but one
thing to do: think of her so intently that she will be compelled to
think of you.--_Les Misérables._
The soul only needs to see a smile in a white crêpe bonnet in order
to enter the palace of dreams.--_Les Misérables._
She had upon her lips almost the light of a smile, with the fulness
of tears in her eyes.... The reflection of an angel was in her
look.--_Toilers of the Sea._