Odds and Ends by B.M. Croker

When the Reverend Maurice Hay died suddenly of heart failure, his parishioners were full of solicitude and sympathy for his orphan girls, Rose and Josephine, who, in spite of youth and good looks, were very popular in Dullditch and its neighbourhood. As it was understood that they had no fortune beyond their pretty faces, no investments, except certain paltry accomplishments, their affairs naturally furnished a subject of burning interest; the villagers laid their heads together, and wondered what on earth the Hay girls were to do! Lady helps, lady nurses, companions, typists, these attractive and genteel posts were urged upon them, but the Hays decided that they would go together to London, and endeavour to find work as artists. The community disapproved and remonstrated -- singly, in couples, and by letter. When these good-natured efforts proved unavailing, it was remembered that the Vicar's daughters had foreign blood in their veins; their mother's father was an Italian, and an Italian painter -- two facts much to be deplored. His queer, roving, Bohemian ideas were manifesting themselves in his descendants; yet it was admitted that the Hay girls had some taste for drawing. Rose's clever black-and-white sketches decorated most of her friends' albums; Josephine painted quite recognisable miniatures -- gratis. She had curly brown locks, a merry, round face, a pink-and-white complexion, and resembled one of Cosway's masterpieces.

Rose, with her dark hair and eyes, and ivory skin, was like her own particular branch of art, a charming study in black and white.