I have ever politely declined the acceptance of such greasy souvenirs. I must not, however, omit to mention in the catalogue one—indeed, the only one—which Otho ever gave me; namely, a huge rusty claspknife, with a horn handle, a wonderful implement of torture to the thumb-nails of the unwary, inasmuch as mere human strength invariably failed to open it, for it needed always to be hitched upon ledges of windows or edges or corners of tables: it contained, too, by a triumph of mechanical skill, besides some four or five blades of ample dimensions, a corkscrew, turnscrew, lancet, a packing needle, a pick for extracting stones from the feet of halting horses, a toothpick, and a pencil which would not mark at all—a gift altogether eminently calculated to add to the comfort and happiness of an intelligent young lady under eight years of age. I have no idea of how many days "fleeted by " at this period of my life in a kind of dreamy monotony. We were taken out every day for a few hours, and we had a few toys given to us, which, of course, we broke instantly; unfortunately they were very expensive, for the kind and soft-spoken young ladies in pink cap-ribbons were inclined to think the dearest toys must be the best: a common, but silly idea. We thought none of them equal in attraction to our dear old, huge, time-worn box of battered bricks, which Michael had himself manufactured for us, and with which we built endless castles in the air with a pertinacity worthy of a more mature age and more lasting material, If our only ideas of London had been derived from this our first visit, I am afraid they would have been exceedingly limited and erroneous: for I do not recollect anything except Hyde Park, upon which our windows looked, and into which we were taken for our daily exercise. It seemed to us, accustomed as we were to the emerald green fields of the country, nothing but a dry, dusty desert, a sun-burnt Sahara, edged by a fringe of staring white houses, and ornamented by a lake of liquid mud called the " Serpentine: a name which, in the innocence of our youthful hearts, we connected with some dim idea of snakes, and which always aroused in us the fear of being stung. The children, too, whom we met, seemed altogether of another race from those we had been accustomed to. There was no attempt at play, no merriment; all seemed occupied in performing an unpleasant duty. We would gladly have fraternized with some of them, but there was a chilling, "Stand off! Who are you?" air about their conductresses, which effectually prevented all approach to geniality. I well remember attempting once to play with a kind-looking little boy with a hoop, which being perceived by his guardian, I was at once frustrated by the stern command, that "Master William was to remember what his mamma had told him about speaking to strangers in the street." My young heart was at once thrown back upon itself, and I wondered what I could have done that he should not have been permitted to speak to me. It was my first lesson in the grammar of English reserve, and it was a very lasting one. There were also numbers of boys, and, what seemed very odd to us, a odd to us, a sprinkling of grownup men, busily employed in sailing small boats on the nasty, dirty water. But their faces were all unfamiliar, nor did any of them condescend by the faintest smile to give us an opportunity of making friends with them. Every one seemed so cold and unapproachable that we were always glad when the walk was over; for, once more returned to our nursery, we could there give way to the usual childish love of action, by racing about and shouting to our hearts' content. : This owlish tradition of reserve is early inculcated in these islands like vaccination, it is one of those unpleasant operations, the mark of which remains upon Britons as long as they live. It is certainly not ornamental, and its usefulness may well be called in question. Vaccination has the merit of being eminently valuable, while its traces are always carefully concealed. Reserve has not only no merit that I have been able to discover, but is highly ridiculous and passively offensive. |