Six to Sixteen

here other people did not. What to common eyes was a mass of grey, or green, was to him a pleasant combination of many gay and delicate hues. He dist

rm-chair, and condescended to share his tea when it reached a certain moderate temperature. It never was betrayed

in that spring sunshine were, no doubt, of much more complex and beautiful colour to him than mere brown), or drinking in the blue of the scillas in the border with a sigh of satisfaction. When he paused, Thomas would pause; as he feasted his eyes, Thomas would rub his head against his master's legs, and stret

aintings are of all paintings the most uninteresting, I think; but his were of a very different

on the subject of his sketches bore reference to the colds he had caught, and the illnesses h

not an opaque and polished-looking painting on smooth cardboard, but a sketch-indefinite at the outer edges of the whole subject-on water-colour paper of moderate roughness. The throat and part of the cup of the flower stood out from some shadow at the roots of a plant beyond; a shadow of infinite gradation, and quite without the blackness common to patches of shade as seen by untrained eyes. From the level of my great-grandfather's view, as he lay in the grass, the border looked a mere strip; close behind it wa

ow the "little peasants," Marguerite and Celandine, were peeping i

er a rotten branch upon the ground. A crimson toadstool relieved the heavy green, and suggested that the year was drawing to a c

er tulips stood-as ma

pride of fine clothes, money, equipages, and the like. What is called pride of birth-the dignity of an ancient name-th

lspeth both the sketch and my

that I'm for objecting to a decent satisfaction in a body's ain gude conduct and resp

ith the perspective of some pansies of various colours (for in imitation of him I painted flowers), he would say, "Never mind the shape, dear

heart. He laboured constantly at this heart, making it plump by piling up the earth, and cramming it with plants of various kinds-perennials muc

between him and the cat, my great-grandmother had named him afresh, after a retainer of

ld not help it. In old times I had always been accustomed to be watched to sleep by Ayah. After I came to Aunt There

deed, a curious little wick floating on a cup of oil was lighted at night for my benefi

xecution of that Duc de Vandaleur who perished in the Revolution, my great-grandfather having been the model. It was a wretched daub, but the s

a-haunted me. They were the cause of certain horrible dreams, which I can remember quite as clearly at this day as if I dreamed them last night, and

ng to say for myself, but I burst into tears. Elspeth was tenderness itself, but she got hold of a wrong

at they were too old to make a child happy. I was constantly assured that "it was very natural," and I "had been very good." But I was sent back to Riflebury. No one knew how lot

dly as I withdrew, that I thin

of the household, and I think believed

f; and he blubbered like a baby. His transplanted perennials were "sattled