90 REMINISCENCES. [ch. it. 



ard dancing about on the sofa, to the peril of the springs, 

 and said, " Oh, Lenny, Lenny, that's against all rules," and 

 received for answer, " Then I think you'd better go out of 

 the room." I do not believe he ever spoke an angry word 

 to any of his children in his life ; but I am certain that it 

 never entered our heads to disobey him. I well remember 

 one occasion when my father reproved me for a piece of 

 carelessness ; and I can still recall the feeling of depression 

 which came over me, and the care which he took to disperse 

 it by speaking to me soon afterwards with especial kindness. 

 He kept up his delightful, affectionate manner towards us 

 all his life. I sometimes wonder that he could do so, with 

 such an undemonstrative race as we are ; but I hope he 

 knew how much we delighted in his loving words and man- 

 ner. He allowed his grown-up children to laugh with and 

 at him, and was generally speaking on terms of perfect 

 equality with us. 



He was always full of interest about each one's plans or 

 successes. We used to laugh at him, and say he would not 

 believe in his sons, because, for instance, he would be a little 

 doubtful about their taking some bit of work for which he 

 did not feel sure that they had knowledge enough. On the 

 other hand, he was only too much inclined to take a favour- 

 able view of our work. When I thought he had set too 

 high a value on anything that I had done, he used to be in- 

 dignant and inclined to explode in mock anger. His doubts 

 were part of his humility concerning what was in any way 

 connected with himself ; his too favourable view of our work 

 was due to his sympathetic nature, which made him lenient 

 to every one. 



He kept up towards his children his delightful manner 

 of expressing his thanks ; and I never wrote a letter or read 

 a page aloud to him, without receiving a few kind words of 

 recognition. His love and goodness towards his little grand- 

 son Bernard were great ; and he often spoke of the pleasure 

 it was to him to see " his little face opposite to him " at 

 luncheon. He and Bernard used to compare their tastes ; 

 e. g., in liking brown sugar better than white, &c. ; the re- 

 sult being, " We always agree, don't we?" 



My sister writes : 



" My first remembrances of my father are of the delights 

 of his playing with us. He was passionately attached to his 

 own children, although he was not an indiscriminate child- 

 lover. To all of us he was the most delightful play-fellow, 



