with Rosy till four or five; then two cups of tea and slices of thin bread and butter in the study, with the accompaniment of quiet talk, till talk died away in the inspection and desultory reading of desultory books and newspapers; then, at half-past six, dinner; then either somewhere with Rosy again, or a less desultory reading of less desultory books and newspapers, till, at ten o'clock, bed. The only real work I did was my morning reading. I devoted three hours each day of the week to Homer, Sophocles, Plato, Vergil, Horace, Juvenal, and Dante severally. I do not think I had any definite aim in view then for this study. I was content to do it, as I did all things, and be still.
Walks with Rosy were not successes at first, for she walked both slowly and badly; but I soon grew accustomed to the slowness, and the badness was remedied by occasional rides on the way. I liked to listen to her; and she, if she was in good spirits, indulged me to the top of my bent. The childlike and seemingly endless interest that she took in things amused me. Her whimsical likes and dislikes of people she had never spoken to used once to put me out: now I listened to her expositions of their faults with a curious pleasure. Her alternations of passion and quiet, of tears and laughter were an endless April day, and, though sometimes her unreasonableness made me impatient, and at others I could not help teasing her to see the pretty results, on the whole I found it a real pleasure and comfort to be with her.
One evening, when we were in her favourite position—she between my knees talking to me as I sat in the armchair:
'Rosy,' I said, 'I will tell you what you are.'
'Well,' she said, 'what?' 'You are a loving girl—one who squeezes softly, and kisses, and tries to steal away breath. I will tell you who was your prototype: a certain Shunamite. 'And let her cherish him and lie in thy bosom.' And moreover: 'A bundle of myrrh is my well-beloved unto me; he shall lie all night betwixt my breasts.' And; 'I charge you, ye daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes and by the hinds of the field, that ye stir not up nor awake my love till he please."'
