reary days of November, and after more peril there than any
where else, we were safely docked at Southampton. Here the Major was met
by two dutiful daughters, bringing their husbands and children, and I
saw more of family life (at a distance) than had fallen to my lot to
observe before; and although there were many little jars and brawls and
cuts at one another, I was sadly inclined to wish sometimes for some
brothers and sisters to quarrel with.

But having none to quarrel with, and none to love, except good Mrs.
Hockin, who went away by train immediately, I spent such a wretched time
in that town that I longed to be back in the Bridal Veil in the very
worst of weather. The ooze of the shore and the reek of the water, and
the dreary flatness of the land around (after the glorious heaven-clad
heights, which made me ashamed of littleness), also the rough, stupid
stare of the men, when I went about as an American lady may freely do in
America, and the sharpness of every body's voice (instead of the genial
tones which those who can not produce them call "nasal," but which from
a higher view are cordial)--taken one after other, or all together,
these things made me think, in the first flush of thought, that England
was not a nice country. After a little while I found that I had been a
great deal too quick, as foreigners are with things which require quiet
comprehension. For instance, I was annoyed at having a stupid woman
put over me, as if I could not mind myself--a cook, or a nurse, or
housekeeper, or something very useful in the Hockin family, but to me a
mere incumbrance, and (as I thought in my wrath sometimes) a spy.
What was I likely to do, or what was any one likely to do to me, in
a thoroughly civilized country, that I could not even stay in private
lodgings, where I had a great deal to think of, without this dull
creature being forced upon me? But the Major so ordered it, and I gave
in.

There I must have staid for the slowest three mouths ever passed without
slow starvation finishing my growth, but not knowing how to "form my
mind," as I was told to do. Major Hockin came down once or twice to see
me, and though I did not like him, yet it was almost enough to make me
do so to see a little liveliness. But I could not and would not put
up with a frightful German baron of music, with a polished card like a
toast-rack, whom the Major tried to impress on me. As if I could stop to
take music lessons!

"Miss Wood," sa