"Look at her!" said the auctioneer. "Look for yourselves. I have nothing
to say, words fail me--unless it is this. For more than twenty years I
have stood in this rostrum, and during that time I suppose that fifteen
or sixteen thousand young women have been knocked down to my hammer.
They have come out of every part of the world; from the farthest East,
from the Grecian mountains, from Egypt and Cyprus, from the Spanish
plains, from Gaul, from the people of the Teutons, from the island of
the Britons, and other barbarous places that lie still further north.
Among them were many beautiful women, of every style and variety of
loveliness, yet I tell you honestly, my patrons, I do not remember one
who came so near perfection as this maiden whom I have the honour to
sell to-night. I say again--look at her, look at her, and tell me with
what you can find fault.
"What do you say? Oh! yes, I am informed that her teeth are quite sound,
there is no blemish to conceal, none at all, and the hair is all her
own. That gentleman says that she is rather small. Well, she is not
built upon a large scale, and to my mind that is one of her attractions.
Little and good, you know, little and good. Only consider the
proportions.
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