180 SALMON FISHING IN THE TWEED 



I acquiesced in good faith ; for I really knew no 

 human beings that could do the same thing in the 

 same time, and perhaps I might add in the same 

 manner ; so I concluded that the talent of these 

 young ladies, like Madame Laffarge's genius for 

 pastry, was ' colossal.' 



" ' Then they never learned,' continued the lady ; 

 'it was all pure genius. Indeed Maria showed a 

 singular facility for taking likenesses at three years 

 old. Sir Thomas Lawrence had admired them 

 very much.' 



" I bowed, and did not doubt it. In a short 

 time the young ladies themselves, and very pretty 

 and sprightly ones they were, came tripping up. 



" ' Oh, mamma, we have been here only an 

 hour, and have brought away all the scenery of 

 the glen ! ' 



" ' Only forty minutes, upon honour, Maria.' 



" ' There, sir, you see my daughters do not 

 throw away their time like some people.' 



" I was not quite so sure of this ; but a look of 

 admiration on my part followed of course. The 

 young ladies then began to discourse on art, and 

 to ask what was my peculiar method of getting up 

 sketches. 



" * Pray, sir,' said the accomplished Maria, ' do 

 you make your trees in twos, or in threes ? ' 



"As I did not comprehend the exact meaning 

 of these terms of art, she was pleased to illustrate 

 by favouring me with a sight of one of her recent 

 performances. The trees she particularly alluded 

 to, I found, were those which represented a distant 

 mass of wood. In executing a tree in such situa- 



