178 Turnaside Cottage.

 

eagerly such poetry books as I possessed. He
knows my little brown Spenser; I doubt not but
she would have passed a far better examination in
that than in Mangnall’s ‘Questions.’ That little
edition of Tennyson’s poems which first came out
—for he was then but beginning to write—delighted
her so much—though I apprehend she knew not but
that he too was Elizabethan—that she borrowed it
of me to take home to her mother. Taylor’s ‘Eve
of the Conquest’ was another of her favourites; I
picked up a bit of paper one day which she had
scrawled all over with illustrations to it. Did I
preserve it? he asks. Nay; it was not worth the
keeping.

“The youngest of my three pupils—Miss Clara—
was a bright, pretty, charming little damsel, quick
enough at aught that it suited her highness to un-
dertake ; but she was a lazy puss,alazy puss! Yet
I know not which of the three I loved best, for Miss
Clara was like a bit of sunshine, with her golden
curls, and her merry, defiant glances. How she
would crane and stretch on tiptoe to catch a glimpse
at herself in the glass as she tied on her hat; and
with what scorn would she reject my offers when I
brought her the footstool, saying, ‘Will she not
stand up here that she may see herself?’ Ah,
well, I had a good many pupils after that, but