The homage of which they were so lavish succeeded, in truth,
for my nerves, quite as well as if I never appeared to myself,
as I may say, literally to catch them at a purpose in it.
They had never, I think, wanted to do so many things for their
poor protectress; I mean--though they got their lessons better
and better, which was naturally what would please her most--
in the way of diverting, entertaining, surprising her;
reading her passages, telling her stories, acting her charades,
pouncing out at her, in disguises, as animals and historical
characters, and above all astonishing her by the "pieces" they
had secretly got by heart and could interminably recite.
I should never get to the bottom--were I to let myself go even now--
of the prodigious private commentary, all under still more
private correction, with which, in these days, I overscored
their full hours. They had shown me from the first a facility
for everything, a general faculty which, taking a fresh start,
achieved remarkable flights. They got their little tasks
as if they loved them, and indulged, from the mere exuberance
of the gift, in the most unimposed little miracles of memory.
They not only popped out at me as tigers and as Romans,
but as Shakespeareans, astronomers, and navigators.
This was so singularly the case that it had presumably
much to do with the fact as to which, at the present day,
I am at a loss for a different explanation: I allude to my
unnatural composure on the subject of another school for Miles.
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