er dancing mechanically, and always seemed in the clouds,
or, as her sisters would say, "wool-gathering."

It was easy to see from the first that no very sister-like feeling
existed between the two elder sisters and their younger one. Even the
parents preferred their two elder girls to their youngest daughter.

The fact was that they--none of them--understood her; she was not of
their order, and they set her down as rather wanting. If she was scolded
for anything and she bore the rebuke with patience, this was set down to
indifference and want of feeling, when my own experience of her
character was that she was the most sensitive creature that I had ever
met with. If, as was often the case, she fell into a reverie in company,
it was called sulkiness, and if when asked to perform on the piano, she
meekly obeyed in a sort of languid manner peculiar to herself, it was
called unwillingness to oblige; yet when at the instrument her touch was
so soft and full of feeling, her voice so clear and modulating, that it
seemed as if her whole soul was poured forth in the piece.

Nevertheless, neither her parents nor her sisters appreciated her
playing, or found in it anything more artistic or soul-stirring than in
the performance of other people. She was never thanked or applauded by
her family for any service or kindness of hers towards them, but often
upbraided for selfishness when her dreamy nature would cause her to
forget the wants of others, while in reality she was one of the most
unselfish beings on this earth. How many mistakes might be rectified, if
the different members of a family would take the trouble to study each
other more accurately!

Maud's nature was reserved to a fault; she did not care to shine, and
this was put down to incapacity. Whether it was she felt she could if
she chose, and in so doing utterly eclipse her two elder sisters, and
consequently incur their envy, or whether it was an excess of modesty, I
know not. One thing is certain, she possessed fine talents, and those,
too, of an uncommon kind. Her health was delicate, and her parents,
perhaps attributed her peculiarities to the state of her health, while
her two sisters, without allowing any such excuse, looked upon her as a
downright fool.

She was snubbed on every occasion, and kept as much as possible in the
background. It will be understood that all these observations of mine
were not made in a single evening. It was not until we grew intimate