f-love soothed towards regarding
them leniently, there was much in Lucretia's external gifts which
justified the predilection of the haughty man. As a child she was
beautiful, and, perhaps from her very imperfections of temper, her
beauty had that air of distinction which the love of command is apt to
confer. If Sir Miles was with his friends when Lucretia swept into the
room, he was pleased to hear them call her their little "princess," and
was pleased yet more at a certain dignified tranquillity with which she
received their caresses or their toys, and which he regarded as the
sign of a superior mind; nor was it long, indeed, before what we call "a
superior mind" developed itself in the young Lucretia. All children are
quick till they are set methodically to study; but Lucretia's quickness
defied even that numbing ordeal, by which half of us are rendered
dunces. Rapidity and precision in all the tasks set to her, in the
comprehension of all the explanations given to her questions, evinced
singular powers of readiness and reasoning.

As she grew older, she became more reserved and thoughtful. Seeing but
few children of her own age, and mixing intimately with none, her mind
was debarred from the usual objects which distract the vivacity, the
restless and wondrous observation, of childhood. She came in and out
of Sir Miles's library of a morning, or his drawing-room of an evening,
till her hour for rest, with unquestioned and sometimes unnoticed
freedom; she listened to the conversation around her, and formed her own
conclusions unchecked. It has a great influence upon a child, whether
for good or for evil, to mix early and habitually with those grown
up,--for good to the mere intellect always; the evil depends upon the
character and discretion of those the child sees and hears. "Reverence
the greatest is due to the children," exclaims the wisest of the Romans
[Cicero. The sentiment is borrowed by Juvenal.],--that is to say, that
we must revere the candour and inexperience and innocence of their
minds.

Now, Sir Miles's habitual associates were persons of the
world,--well-bred and decorous, indeed, before children, as the best of
the old school were, avoiding all anecdotes; all allusions, for which
the prudent matron would send her girls out of the room; but with that
reserve speaking of the world as the world goes: if talking of young
A----, calculating carelessly what he would have when old A----, his
father, died; n