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- 



