A white mob-cap, with a long black veil,
surrounded her thin, wan face with its narrow, hooded border. A great
number of deep, transverse wrinkles ploughed her brow, which resembled
yellowish ivory in color and substance. Her keen and prominent nose
was curved like the hooked beak of a bird of prey; her black eye was
piercing and sagacious; her face was at once intelligent, firm, and
cold.
"For comprehending and managing the material interests of the society,
Mother Saint Perpetua could have vied with the shrewdest and most wily
lawyer. When women are possessed of what is called _business
talent_, and when they apply thereto the sharpness of perception,
the indefatigable perseverance, the prudent dissimulation, and, above
all, the correctness and rapidity of judgment at first sight, which
are peculiar to them, they arrive at prodigious results.
"To Mother Saint Perpetua, a woman of a strong and solid head, the
vast moneyed business of the society was but child's play. None better
than she understood how to buy depreciated properties, to raise them
to their original value, and sell them to advantage; the average
purchase of rents, the fluctuations of exchange, and the current
prices of shares in all the leading speculations, were perfectly
familiar to her.
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