The Brighton of my Boyhood 



all women, from his wife, " My tender 

 soul," as he prettily called her, to any poor 

 forlorn thing tramping it on the road ; and 

 gentle with all animals and dependent 

 things. It is true he could not write his 

 name ; and yet when I remember how 

 lovingly observant he was of every phase 

 of the beauty through which he daily 

 drove, and how simple and deeply rooted 

 was his faith in God, and what a big tender 

 heart he had for all His creatures, I 

 cannot think he was greatly inferior for 

 having lived before the days of compulsory 

 education. 



My Mother was really a fine specimen of 

 exquisite though homely housewifery, and 

 althouofh at times of house-cleaninsr and 

 such repairs, a little fussy and put about, 

 she was really the most devoted wife and 

 mother in England. Having received 

 little or no education herself, she could ill 

 sympathise with Mary's tastes, and was 

 sometimes a little short with her on the 

 subject. But then she grew inconsistently 

 proud and pleased when the clergyman 

 commended Mary's gifts to her, and wished 

 he had such a tongue for French as she. 

 Dear soul ! Like many another at such 

 moments, she quite forgot her sometime 

 grudge against her daughter's aspirations, 

 28 



