MRS. So\fERVILLE. 19 



can tell you nothing about it.' And we talked about 

 other things ; but on going home, I thought I would 

 look if any of our books could tell me what was 

 meant by algebra. In Robertson's " Navigation " I 

 flattered myself that I had got precisely what I 

 wanted ; but I soon found that I was mistaken. I 

 perceived, however, that astronomy did not consist in 

 star-gazing, and as I persevered in studying the book 

 for a time, I certainly got a dim view of several sub- 

 jects which were useful to me afterwards. Unfor- 

 tunately, not one of our acquaintances or relations 

 knew anything of science or natural history, nor, had 

 they done so, should I have had courage to ask any of 

 them a question, for I should have been laughed at. 

 I was often very sad and forlorn ; not a hand held out 

 to help me." 



Yet most girls of the age of Mary Fairfax, in like 

 circumstances with herself, would have thought they 

 had quite enough to do without troubling further. At 

 the time when she was thus longing to study algebra, 

 Mary was giving four or five hours a day to music ; she 

 was practising drawing very energetically, and was 

 keeping up her other studies ; she was taking part in 

 household affairs, and was making and mending her 

 own clothes. Also she went into society, was particu- 

 larly fond of going to the theatre, and never missed 

 an opportunity of seeing Shakespeare acted. Last, 

 but not least, she went every day to a pastry-cook's, 

 with a companion, to learn the art of cookery, utilising 

 B 2 



