Poor Miss Finch

Miss

back at a right angle, asserted itself as ancient. It had been, in its time, as I afterwards heard, a convent of nuns. Here were snug little Gothic windows, and dark ivy-covered walls of venerable stone: repaired in places, at some past p

aid-servant admitt

thus offered to me. I mentioned my name, as soon as I could make myself heard. The maid appeared to be terrified at the length of it. I gave her my card. The maid took it between a dirty finger and thumb - looked at it as if it was some extraordinary natural curiosity - turned it round, exhibiting correct black impressions in various parts of it of her finger and thumb - gave up understanding it in despair, and left the room. She was stopped outside (as I gathered from the sounds) by a returning invasion of children in the hall. Th

st. My lucky star had led me

low of water in her pale blue eyes. Her hair was not dressed; and her lace cap was all on one side. The upper part of her was clothed in a loose jacket of blue merino; the lower part was robed in a dimity dressing gown of doubtful white. In one hand, she held a dirty dogs'-eared book, which I at once detected to be a Circulating

. Have you had a pleasant journey?" (These words were spoken vacantly, as if her mind was occupied with something else. My first impression

I have enjoyed most heartily my jo

house, you never can pick it up again, try how you may." (I soon discovered that Mrs. Finch was always losing hal

am. The cares of a

nd Finch, he comes in without any notice, and wants his breakfast. And of course I can't leave the baby. And half an hour does slip away so easily, that how to overtake it again, I do assure you I really don't know." Here the baby began to exhibit

a most refreshing contrast to the members of the household with whom I had made acquaintance thu

has only this moment heard of your arri

"I find novels compose my mind. Do you read novels too? Remind me - and I'll lend you this one to-morrow." I expressed my acknowledgments, and withdrew. At the door, I look

ed passage, with drab-colored doors in it, leading, a

o sets of twins, and one seven months' child of deficient intellect - fourteen in all." Hearing this, I began - though I consider priests, kings, and capitalists to be the enemies of the human race - to feel a certain exceptional interest in Reverend

," she explained, "or the children would be in

own I looked at the oaken door with min

selves in the vaulted corridor of

with hangings of bright chintz. The doors were colored of a creamy white, with gilt moldings. The brightly ornamented matting under our feet I at once recognized as of South American origin.

I had come to cheer. In the scattered villages of the South Downs, the simple people added their word of pity to her name, and called her compassionately -"Po

eyelid; the delicate outline of the lower face; the tender, sensitive lips; the color of the complexion and the hair - all reflected, with a startling fidelity, the lovely creature of the Dresden picture. The one fatal point at which the resemblance ceased, was in the eyes. The divinely-beautiful eyes of Raphael's Virgin were lost in the living likeness of her that confronted me now. There was no deformity; there was nothing to recoil from, in my blind Lucilla. The poor, dim, sightless eyes had a faded, changeless, inexpressive look - and that was all. Above them, below them, round them, to the very edges of her eyelids, there was beauty, movement, life. In them - d

d. "May I see you, in my way?" she asked gently - and

e absorbed all the while in breathless attention to what she was about. "Speak again!" she said suddenly, holding her hand over me in suspense. I said a few words. She stopped me by a kis

instantly drew it away again, and shook her fin

n?" I

olored dress ha

rpl

ht colors, to please me!" She put her arm caressingly round me again - round my neck, however, this time, where her hand could rest on my

ons of the corridor we

of all sorts could make them. They were more like rooms in my lively native country than rooms in sober colorless England. The one thing which I own did still astonish me, was that all this sparkling beauty of adornment in Lucilla's habita

ll to make inquiries, my elderly guide (who had silently left us while we were talking together in the corridor) re-appeared, followed by the boy and a groom, carrying my things. These servants also brought with them certain p

n do a little of everything - cooking included. She has had lessons at a London

hough widely different in color, she picked out the dark dress as being the light one. I saw that I disappointed her sadly when I told her of her mistake. The next guess she made, however, restored the tips of her fingers to their place in her estimation: she discovered the stripes in a smart pair of stockings of mine, and brightened up directly. "Don'

rst impression produced on my mind