The door may not be much the
better, but the person who tries to improve its appearance with
painstaking care is benefited."
"Then I may conscientiously continue decorating canvas, or at least
trying to do so."
"I should certainly desire and advise you to do so; but instead of
covering so many, if you would take time and talent in elaborating one
picture, I would be better pleased."
He laid the pictures to one side. "We will continue this study more
exhaustingly in the future; to-day I want to speak of other things. You
have made use of my library, Mrs. Flaxman also informs me. Will you
please tell me what books you have been reading?"
I went to the shelves and took down the books I had spent most time over,
a good many were novels; and on these I felt certain I could pass a
fairly good examination, since I had read some of them with absorbed
interest; novels of all kinds were, for the most part, forbidden mental
food at school, and therefore, when opportunity offered, I dipped into
them with the keener avidity. But my mind was healthy enough to crave
more solid food than fiction alone, and I was glad to be able to hand my
guardian a volume or two of Carlyle's Frederick, Froude's Caesar, Motley's
Rise of the Dutch Republic, and a couple of volumes of Bancroft's History
of the United States.
"Have you read all these since you came to Oaklands?" he asked, with
evident surprise.
"I skipped some of the dull passages; the 'dry-as-dust' parts of which I
found a few even in Carlyle.
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