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power and often the inclination, on entering a new society of commencing a reformation without the annoyance of its being generally known that reform is needed. He turns over a new leaf-in short, with a volti subito. This was partly the case of Rosina, who, conscious of her faults of temper, resolved that they should never betray her now that she was once more in her dear home where every one was kind and good-humoured. The acting on this prudent determination, together with her mother's gentle system of management, and the infrequency of temptation, effected a considerable improvement, though her faults were yet far from being eradicated. Inconsideration both in speaking and acting was the failing which oftenest required her mother's correction; and, next to this, a want of application to any pursuit when it ceased to be amusing.

Rosina had been so well grounded in the elements of many feminine accomplishments by the Penningtons' Parisian governess, that it only required her own diligence to attain excellence in almost any pursuit she chose to undertake; and Mrs. Wellford was very anxious that she should adhere to the plans already commenced with so much success. Rosina's style in every thing she undertook bore an accurate likeness to her own disposition. Her handwriting, for instance, was more free than is usual at her age, but wanting in neatness. Her drawings were bold, sketchy, and incorrect. She would often cover a sheet of paper with odd groups of knights errant, ladies, pages, squires, and long robed signors, which reminded one of Cervantes, or Ariosto, or Spenser's Fairy Queen, and which excited wonderful admiration and pleasure in the mother and sister; but on examination it was generally found that one had no neck, another's head was twisted hind part before, arms and legs were put on where they were never known to grow, some were standing in the air, and others so aslant that it was impossible they should keep their balance-faults by no means uncommon in the hit-or-miss school. On their being pointed out by the matterof-fact critics, Rosina generally observed that "it was much easier to give advice than to mend ;" an undeniable fact;—and that "she was tired just then, but would correct the faults another time;" which time never came. With respect to music, again, Rosina had a sweet voice, quick finger and excellent ear, and could play off any easy piece at sight; but her execution wanted finish. At Summerfield, indeed, she had not much opportunity of keeping up her practice; for she had left

all her music behind, and the only instrument in the house was an old square piano-forte, which her father had bought, years ago, for fifteen pounds at a sale. On this divine instrument Rosina flourished over all the lessons she could recollect in the absence of her notes; and if she stuck in the middle of a troublesome variation, she changed the key, and went off to something else; till she was completely tired of all her old tunes. Lady Worral then lent her half a dozen heavy volumes of Handel, Gluck, Piccini, &c., half of which were unintelligible, being printed in score. Mrs. Good also rummaged out some reels and country dances and a collection of Vauxhall songs; but even with the free use of these, Rosina's

music soon came to a stand.

Hannah had no claim to the title of "an accomplished young person." Music she had never had an opportunity of learning, and she had a taste, rather than a genius for drawing. She was fond of botany, and sometimes endeavoured to copy the outline of a flower in pencil; but her attempts, though neat, were cramped. Her hand was not what artists call "sufficiently untied." But in the culture of her garden-flowers, in long rambles among the green bowery lanes and over the spirit-reviving heath, in needlework, and in reading, Hannah found sufficient resources without the assistance of music or painting. Her threaded steel was remarkably felicitous in its execution of

"buds, and leaves, and sprigs, Wrought patiently into the snowy lawn;"

and her delicate hemstitch and satinstitch formed the only ornament of her neat and simple dress. Poetry was a source of keen enjoyment to her; not indeed the love-rapine-and-murder school, of which no specimens had come to her knowledge, but the descriptive, contemplative, and moralizing class of writers, among whom may be instanced, as two of her bosom favourites, Thomson and Cowper. She had also enough mind to understand and delight in Milton. At first her reading was confined to the often turned over volumes of her father's moderate collection; but in after-times, Mr. Russell, whose study shelves were amply furnished with standard works, and who subscribed moreover to a town library, continually sup plied her with a change of useful and amusing literature. Hannah understood French perfectly when she read it to her

VOL. I.-C.

self, but having principally learnt it by sight, was diffident of her accent. Rosina, on the contrary, had always had a mortal aversion to grammars, French or English; but her excellent ear had enabled her completely to catch the Parisian pronunciation of Mademoiselle Mackau, who had insisted on French being invariably spoken in school hours. She therefore gladly abandoned her needlework to read Voltaire's. Charles XII. and Pierre le Grand to Hannah every afternoon, as long as they lasted.

In so confined a neighbourhood as Summerfield, of course there was not much change of society; but in the small round of visits which were periodically exchanged, Mrs. Wellford was always accompanied by her daughters. Lady Worral loved a game at whist, and generally invited the Goods and Mrs. Wellford every week or ten days to make up a rubber. On these occasions Mr. Russell, though he never played cards, sometimes looked in and chatted with the girls at their work, or challenged one of them to a game of chess. Mrs. Good and Mrs. Greenway also, had little tea parties, which sometimes concluded with a dance; and at Farmer Holland's there were famous syllabubs out of doors in the summer, and all sorts of noisy Christmas games in the winter. Such was the gaiety of which Hannah and Rosina partook; and in the daily exercise of their domestic occupations, months and years followed each other, productive of much peaceful enjoyment and leaving little mark behind, while the future promised to be as much like the past as possible. Nobody seemed to alter or grow much older, except the young; there were few deaths and fewer marriages. Mrs. Wellford at forty was as clear and delicate looking as she had been ten years before, and Lady Worral seemed to wear as well as her everlasting brown satin pelisse. The three Miss Hollands, who had formerly been village belles, were still single, and had gradually become stout, buxom, middle-aged women, retaining all the good humour and hilarity of their youth. There seemed every prospect of the two Miss Wellfords likewise spending their existence in single blessedness; a prospect which Hannah, at the calm age of two and twenty, contemplated with the most perfect composure, though Rosina, on the borders of seventeen, considered the subject with rather more impatience. Frequent consultations with her looking-glass, which told her that she was an extremely pretty girl, had awakened in her a certain portion of vanity. This had as yet little opportunity of displaying itself, save in the somewhat self-complacent ex

pression of her countenance, and the janty way of putting on her bonnet; though in after times it involved more serious results. She was devotedly attached to Hannah, and now and then fretted herself a little that so much beauty and sweetness should be wasted on the desert air; but in vain she invoked the heroes of ancient and modern romance, for, like Glendower's spirits, they did not come when she did call for them. At one time, from the frequency of Mr. Russell's visits, she really began to suspect him of intending to make Hannah an offer, on which she immediately discovered him to be endowed with a thousand good qualities to which she had heretofore been blind. He was not so very old, after all, and certainly not at all old bachelorish in his ways! But the offer was not made, and Rosina wondered how she could have changed her opinion of him, for he was just the same prosy good sort of a man as ever. Then he began to pay Rosina more attention than formerly, seemed suddenly aware that the "young lady" was rising into the "young woman," took the liberty of telling her of a few of her faults, at first playfully, then seriously; was evidently much gratified by her improving on some of his hints, and vexed and even cross at her slighting his advice on some other points. What could all this interest in her character mean? He had become such an habitual visitor at the White Cottage, that it was looked on as something remarkable if two days passed without seeing him. Was it possible that Rosina could be the attraction? That was too ridiculous; yet it was better, at least more entertaining, for a man to be even ridiculous than merely solemnly stupid. There would be some eclat in refusing him; all the village would know it, and be astonished at her, and pity him. Nay, the poor man was so amiable that she really believed she should pity him herself. Poor Mr. Russell!

However, poor Mr. Russell continued to eat, drink, and sleep as well as usual, quite unconscious of the bold step that was expected from him; and Rosina felt half ashamed of herself for having indulged in such silly and improbable speculations. It was plain that he was in love with neither of them; most probably he had been disappointed in early life. There was no one else whom even her fertile fancy could convert into a hero. An old college friend, indeed, of Mr. Russell's, one Dr. Black, was occasionally known to be at the vicarage, and he even drank tea at Lady Worral's and Mrs. Wellford's, but this man Rosina particularly detested. It was to no purpose that Mr. Russell bespoke favour for him

on the score of his amiability, his deep learning, and varied powers of mind he had a grating voice, a figure not unlike that of Dr. Syntax, a pair of legs in every body's way; he dissolved nine lumps of sugar in every cup of tea, played with keys, scissars, or whatever lay within his reach while speaking, and sometimes, in his fits of abstraction, dropped the aforesaid keys or scissars into his immense pocket. It was impossible to endure Dr. Black. Then, the Hollands were visited by occasional troops of odd looking cousins from London, whose manners even Rosina's inexperience knew to be underbred; and Mr. Good had two nephews in the next market town, one articled to a solicitor, the other an usher in a public school, who dined with him every Sunday, and as often on week days as he thought proper to invite them. Sam, the articled clerk, was pert and disagreeable; Edwin, the usher, pale and pragmatical. Neither could, by any stretch of fancy, be coaxed into heroes, though they did tolerably well for partners in an occasional dance. So with the conviction that in due time, she and Hannah would add two to the much abused sisterhood of old maids, Miss Rosina Wellford was obliged to remain contented.

CHAPTER VI.

A BACHELOR'S TEA TABLE.

MAN is an ambulatory animal. He walks to and fro, whether to digest his thoughts or his dinner, either in his study, in his garden, on his terrace, or wheresoever fate is kind enough to afford him room for stretching his legs. The Greeks and Romans were luxurious people. They had actual ambulatories built of marble, sheltered from the weather, and adorned with pillars and statues.

The Reverend William Russell was not so well off-his library was fourteen feet by sixteen, without deducting for the bookcases; and five strides brought him from one extremity to the other, even if he took the diagonal of the square. So he bought himself a library chair; and when his thoughts required shaking, he stepped out into the churchyard, where there was a lime-tree walk.

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