And then the woman who had
never had a child of her own would feel, afresh each time, as though the
child's hand was gripping her heart.

With her father she was sweetest of all. And as he seemed to be pleased
when she did anything like a little boy, the habit of being like one
insensibly grew on her.

An only child has certain educational difficulties. The true learning is
not that which we are taught, but that which we take in for ourselves
from experience and observation, and children's experiences and
observation, especially of things other than repressive, are mainly of
children. The little ones teach each other. Brothers and sisters are
more with each other than are ordinary playmates, and in the familiarity
of their constant intercourse some of the great lessons, so useful in
after-life, are learned. Little Stephen had no means of learning the
wisdom of give-and-take. To her everything was given, given bountifully
and gracefully. Graceful acceptance of good things came to her
naturally, as it does to one who is born to be a great lady. The
children of the farmers in the neighbourhood, with whom at times she
played, were in such habitual awe of the great house, that they were
seldom sufficiently at ease to play naturally. Children cannot be on
equal terms on special occasions with a person to whom they have been
taught to bow or courtesy as a public habit. The children of
neighbouring landowners, who were few and far between, and of the
professional people in Norcester, were at such times as Stephen met them,
generally so much on their good behaviour, that the spontaneity of play,
through which it is that sharp corners of individuality are knocked off
or worn down, did not exist.

And so Stephen learned to read in the Book of Life; though only on one
side of it. At the age of six she had, though surrounded with loving
care and instructed by skilled teachers, learned only the accepting side
of life. Giving of course there was in plenty, for the traditions of
Normanstand were royally benevolent; many a blessing followed the little
maid's footsteps as she accompanied some timely aid to the sick and needy
sent from the Squire's house. Moreover, her Aunt tried to inculcate
certain maxims founded on that noble one that it is more blessed to give
than to receive. But of giving in its true sense: the giving that which
we want for ourselves, the giving that is as a temple built on the rock
of self-sacrifi