`` I dropped a lamp and my dress caught fire and burned my face , Jims . It made me hideous . I was beautiful before that -- very beautiful . Everybody said so . Come in and I will show you my picture . '' She took him into her big parlor and showed him the picture hanging on the wall between the two high windows . It was of a young girl in white . She certainly was very lovely , with her rose-leaf skin and laughing eyes . Jims looked at the pictured face gravely , with his hands in his pockets and his head on one side . Then he looked at Miss Avery . `` You were prettier then -- yes , '' he said , judicially , `` but I like your face ever so much better now . '' `` Oh , Jims , you ca n't , '' she protested . `` Yes , I do , '' persisted Jims . `` You look kinder and -- nicer now . '' It was the nearest Jims could get to expressing what he felt as he looked at the picture . The young girl was beautiful , but her face was a little hard . There was pride and vanity and something of the insolence of great beauty in it . There was nothing of that in Miss Avery 's face now -- nothing but sweetness and tenderness , and a motherly yearning to which every fibre of Jims ' small being responded . How they loved each other , those two ! And how they understood each other !
To love is easy , and therefore common ; but XXXXX understand -- how rare that is !
as at before between in into of on to with