Some
fastidious persons- but they were exclusively of her own sex- affirmed
that the Bloody Hand, as they chose to call it, quite destroyed the
effect of Georgiana's beauty, and rendered her countenance even
hideous. But it would be as reasonable to say, that one of those small
blue stains, which sometimes occur in the purest statuary marble,
would convert the Eve of Powers to a monster. Masculine observers,
if the birthmark did not heighten their admiration, contented
themselves with wishing it away, that the world might possess one
living specimen of ideal loveliness, without the semblance of a
flaw. After his marriage- for he thought little or nothing of the
matter before- Aylmer discovered that this was the case with himself.
Had she been less beautiful- if Envy's self could have found
aught else to sneer at- he might have felt his affection heightened by
the prettiness of this mimic hand, now vaguely portrayed, now lost,
now stealing forth again, and glimmering to and fro with every pulse
of emotion that throbbed within her heart. But, seeing her otherwise
so perfect, he found this one defect grow more and more intolerable,
with every moment of their united lives. It was the fatal flaw of
humanity, which Nature, in one shape or another, stamps ineffaceably
on all her productions, either to imply that they are temporary and
finite, or that their perfection must be wrought by toil and pain.
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