AND THE WILDERNESS BLOSSOMED 



" She was a pale, delicate child, and while ' she 

 would weep till she wept her eyes out,' ' her whole 

 frame quivering with hysterical sobs,' ' her heart flowing 

 away in tears,' 'the pent-up tempest bursting forth 

 with a fury that racked her little frame from .head to 

 foot,' we are told that unfortunately ' convulsive weep- 

 ing only exhausted her.' After all this, it is difficult to 

 see why any one should be ' surprised to see several 

 large drops of tears ' on her person. 



" It would be unjust to assume that Ellen was always 

 in this maudlin condition ; and, in fact. Miss Warner 

 takes special pains to point out more than one occasion 

 when she did not cry, although no obstacle apparently 

 offered. Thus we are told that ' she almost burst into 

 tears,' ' was almost crying,' ' was in constant danger of 

 bursting into tears,' and 'was in question whether to 

 give way to tears.' On other occasions there was no 

 room for doubt, for we are told explicitly that ' there 

 were no tears,' ' tears did not come,' ' tears could not 

 come then,' ' she did not shed tears now,' and once ' she 

 was too weak for violent weeping,' so of course it was 

 useless to begin. 



" After reading this extraordinary book, one is forced 

 to the conclusion that the author could only have 

 secured so great a variety of expression by first preparing 

 such a list as the above, and then checking off each 

 phrase as used." 



88 



