HUGH MILLER. 1 2 7 



England to whose kindness she had been so largely indebted ; 

 and with them she might have permanently remained, to enjoy 

 the advantages of superior position. She was at an age, how- 

 ever, which rarely occupies itself in adjusting the balance of 

 temporal advantage ; and her only brother having been admitted, 

 through the interest of her friends, as a pupil into Christ's 

 Hospital, she preferred returning to her widowed mother, left 

 solitary in consequence, though with the prospect of being 

 obliged to add to her resources by taking a few of the children 

 of the town as day pupils. 



' Her claim to take her place in the intellectual circle of the 

 burgh was soon recognised. I found that, misled by the 

 extreme youthfulness of her appearance, and a marked 

 juvenility of manner, I had greatly mistaken the young lady. 

 That she should be accomplished in the ordinary sense of the 

 term — that she should draw, play, and sing well — would be 

 what I should have expected ; but I was not prepared to find 

 that, mere girl as she seemed, she should have a decided turn, 

 not for the lighter, but for the severer walks of literature, 

 and should have already acquired the ability of giving expres- 

 sion to her thoughts in a style formed on the best English 

 models, and not in the least like that of a young lady. The 

 original shyness wore away, and we became great friends. I 

 was nearly ten years her senior, and had read a great many 

 more books than she ; and, finding me a sort of dictionary of 

 fact, ready of access, and with explanatory notes attached, that 

 became long or short just as she pleased to draw them out by 

 her queries, she had, in the course of her amateur studies, 

 frequent occasion to consult me. There were, she saw, several 

 ladies of her acquaintance, who used occasionally to converse 

 with me in the churchyard ; but in order to oiake assurance 



