PURE GENIUS' 179 



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 per- 

 formances. The trees she particularly alluded to, I 

 found, were those which represented a distant mass 

 of wood. In executing a tree in such situations I 

 was instructed that a sort of flourish should be 

 made, consisting of two segments of a circle, just as 

 birds are drawn in prints ; and this is doing trees in 

 twos in threes, another segment was added ; and 



