MRS. SoMF.Rnu.r. 45 



into society, and giving what time she could spare to 

 study. But now she had a definite work to do, and 

 she made arrangements accordingly. She did not 

 neglect her family and children ; she still continued to 

 educate the latter ; indeed, it was her practice whilst 

 writing her books to keep her two little girls in the 

 room with her, and to superintend their lessons at 

 intervals. This fact alone shows what a powerful 

 mind she had. As a rule, literary people find it 

 necessary to have perfect quiet while they are at 

 work. They cannot bear the least interruption, and 

 become quite irritable when they are disturbed. But 

 mothers who undertake to write cannot secure lux- 

 urious conditions like these. They must either leave 

 their little ones to strangers, or they must get into the 

 way of thinking and working to themselves, so as not 

 to be concerned in what goes on around them. The 

 habit is most difficult to acquire, yet it has been 

 acquired again and again, and Mrs. Somerville was 

 capable of gaining it. 



Her daughter tells us that whilst she was busy at 

 work talking went on in the same room ; the children 

 practised their scales, and learnt their lessons, and 

 even spoke to their mother about their childish 

 difficulties, stopping her, perhaps, when she was just 

 on the point of solving a difficult problem, by asking 

 some simple question, such as what seven times seven 

 made. Yet, so long as the children worked well, the 

 mother never became impatient, but was always 



