but chin and mouth receding in a peculiar
manner, and very disagreeably; and a thick, waxy complexion, worse in
childhood than of late years, for the spirit had not then found its way
through it, as it did afterward. Moreover, by a singular malignancy of
fortune, when she was twelve years old, she was attacked with varioloid,
and taking a severe cold as she was getting well, had a relapse, and was
left as you see her, not closely marked, but sufficiently pitted to
attract attention.

'My parents thought more of education than the Sunderlands, and my
advantages were much better than Laetitia's. I went for some time to a
good select school in the town, and afterward two years to an excellent
boarding school. When Laetitia had learned all that her instructors in
the little district school could teach her, she came to me and begged
that I would let her read with me. I was very glad to do so, and soon
after my cousin and niece joined us. To those readings I am indebted for
some of the most delightful hours of my life. My pupils, as I used to
call them, were at that age when childhood is verging into womanhood,
and it was my delight to watch the first dawnings of consciousness in
their minds, the first awakening to the realities of life. Laetitia was
the youngest of the three, but she was as intelligent and mature as the
others. How well I remember the glow of enthusiasm with which she read
of the heroes and martyrs of old, the intense sympathy with which she
entered into the _amor patriae_ of the Greek and Roman, and her fervent
admiration for the nobleness of action which this feeling called forth
in them!

'The second year I began to see the development of new sentiments. The
romance of life, as well as its heroism and duties, was revealed to
them. Pieces of poetry which before had been read listlessly, or with
only a distant apprehension of their meaning, were now full of interest.
The sentiment which had passed unnoticed, now kindled their imaginations
with delight; and there came, too, all the new attentions to dress and
looks which first show themselves at this time. Life lay before them,
golden and beautiful, and they saw all its shining angels coming to meet
them--love, friendship, duty, praise, self-sacrifice, each with a joy in
her hand, but the sorrow was concealed from their eyes, or, rather, was
but another form of joy. They admitted its probability, but it was with
the disguised pleasure which we feel in the t