4 AUTOBIOGRAPHY 



which made their appearance in me as I reached 

 the age she hail when I noticed them that I can 

 hardly find any trace of my father in myself, 

 except an inborn faculty for drawing, which un- 

 fortunately, in my case, has never been cultivated, a 

 hot temper, and that amount of tenacity of pur- 

 pose which unfriendly observers sometimes call 

 obstinacy. 



My mother was a slender bnmette, of an 

 emotional and energetic temperament, and pos- 

 sessed of the most piercing black eyes I ever 

 saw in a woman's head. With no more educa- 

 tion than other women of the middle classes 

 in her day, she had an excellent mental capacity. 

 filer most distinguishing characteristic, however, 

 was rapidity of thought. If one ventured to 

 suggest she had not taken much time to arrive 

 at any conclusion, she would say, " I cannot help 

 it, things flash across me." That peculiarity has 

 been passed on to me in full strength ; it has often 

 stood me in good stead ; it has sometimes played 

 me sad tricks, and it has always been a danger. 

 But, after all, if my time were to come over again, 

 there is nothing I would less willingly part with 

 than my inheritance of mother witj 



I have next to nothing to say about my 



childhood. In later years my mother, looking 



at me almost reproachfully, would sometimes > 



" Ah ! you were such a pretty boy ! " whence I 



i no difficulty in concluding that I had not 



