Lights and Shadows of London Life. 181 



mirror of her native skies, the radiant sunshine or tempest thunder 

 of the south. A brief experience of home soon revealed the too 

 apparent truth, that the beings he was called upon to love and re- 

 spect, lived together in bitter estrangement. Silent, cold, and 

 repulsive, his father kept aloof from all society, never joining his 

 family save at dinner, after which he would retire to his study, an 

 apartment in which he passed, with that exception, the whole of his 

 time. His mother, on the contrary, went much into company, and 

 gave very frequent entertainments ; the style of living was such as 

 might be expected from a country gentleman of a couple of thousands 

 a-year; the establishment, however, being somewhat loosely con- 

 ducted, as the master of the family took no part in its arrangement, 

 and the mistress, with her foreign education and habits, was ill suited 

 to remedy the deficiency. The house in which this ill-accorded pair 

 resided, was a villa upon the Severn, the owner of which was under 

 age, and it had, in consequence, been let during the minority. Here 

 the first ten years of Chalcroft's life found their home, though far 

 the greatest portion of their space had been passed in that moral 

 tomb of all gentle sympathies, that upas shade of life's rosy morning 

 a public school. 



It was about this period, that is to say, when he had reached his 

 tenth year, that Chalcroft was taken home, preparatory to his re- 

 moval to Eton. On this visit he found a new member added to the 

 family circle, a little girl, in appearance of his own age, whom he 

 was instructed to call " cousin Mima." The natural consequence of 

 the social disorganization by which they were surrounded was to 

 draw these isolated children more closely together. The autobio- 

 graphy which little Mima related to her companion as they wandered 

 hand in hand by the shining river, was but the echo of the history 

 told to her in return. From the chaos of the past, the first glimmer 

 of memory showed the thorny path that each had trodden; neither 

 knew how long, nor whence, the weary pilgrimage had begun. 

 Tender as were their years, retrospection had its bitterness for them, 

 and they said little of what was gone. Mima had been told on 

 leaving her house of penance, " that she was going to remain for a 

 time at uncle Chalcroft's, who was so good as to take her home, for 

 her own papa had been killed in America, and mamma was a long 

 long time dead." Her cousin heard the tale for the first time ; he had 

 gained a gentle, kind companion, it was, beyond that, without interest 

 for him. 



That which had originated in chance, became established, as inter- 

 course revealed the natural bias of each to the other. Two rose- 

 buds on one stem dwell not together in gentler unity than did these 

 fair children in sympathy of spirit. When in heaviness of heart the 

 son has turned from the chilling glance of his father, there was the 

 sunny smile of a cherub to cheer and welcome him ; when the tem- 

 pest of a mother's rage had banished the rose from his cheek, there 

 was ever a tear of balmy pity to bedew and revive it. 



It was early in spring that Chalcroft was removed from school, 

 the intention being that he should enter at Eton after the Easter 

 recess. Circumstances, however, prevented the accomplishment of 



