Pecksniff, "There is no deception, ladies and gentlemen, all is peace, a holy

calm pervades me." So did his hair, just grizzled with an iron gray, which was

all brushed off his forehead, and stood bolt upright, or slightly drooped in

kindred action with his heavy eyelids. So did his person, which was sleek though

free from corpulency. So did his manner, which was soft and oily. In a word,

even his plain black suit, and state of widower, and dangling double eye-glass,

all tended to the same purpose, and cried aloud, "Behold the moral Pecksniff!"

 

--CHARLES DICKENS, _Martin Chuzzlewit_.

 

13. Which of the following do you prefer, and why?

 

She was a blooming lass of fresh eighteen, plump as a partridge, ripe and

melting and rosy-cheeked as one of her father's peaches.

 

--IRVING.

 

She was a splendidly feminine girl, as wholesome as a November pippin, and no

more mysterious than a window-pane.

 

--O. HENRY.

 

Small, shining, neat, methodical, and buxom was Miss Peecher; cherry-cheeked and

tuneful of voice.