INTRODUCTORY. 3 



iny daily walk a dull cold task. Tlie good influence of Cleve- 

 don will end, as it began, with you." 



" I can quite enter into your feelings, Fanny," broke in 

 Edward, throwing aside his book and joining his cousins at 

 the window. The boy was seventeen, three years younger 

 than Fanny, and ten younger than the staid Esther. He was 

 a brilliant scholar in a large public school in one of the mid- 

 land counties, and was spending his holidays with his aunt. 



" My mother is always exhorting me to take exercise," he 

 continued, " and I have no objection to a good game at cricket ; 

 but for a constitution walk ! bah ! it is the greatest bore 

 that ever was invented. But whilst I have been here, I have 

 always liked our rambles ; the things that Esther finds amuse 

 me, more especially those jolly little beasts which we find in 

 the pools among the rocks. If I lived with her I should be 

 a much more dutiful son, for I would take a walk as often 

 as my mother wished." 



While the boy spoke, Esther was weighing Fanny's words. 

 " Your mind is in great need of interesting occupation, 

 Fanny," she said. " How I wish I could make over some 

 of my super-abundant work to you ! You would never be in 

 want of objects of interest if you had brothers to care for 

 and young sisters to teach. I can scarcely get time to write 

 letters, or to read for my own information. Some of the time 

 which hangs so heavily on your hands would be a great boon 

 to me !" 



" I would help you most willingly if I could," Fanny re- 

 plied ; "but I cannot fly to your Yorkshire home to give 

 music lessons, and back to my mother by evening. I do not 

 love idleness, and I am weary for want of an object for exer- 

 tion ; that would revive me more than all the tonics in the 

 world, or the finest and most frequent changes of air. I have 

 thought of commencing the study of a language ; but my 

 spirit sinks at the idea of close solitary labour, and what 

 better should I be when I had succeeded?" 



