“I have had no master at all—mamma thought English an unnecessary study, though I should have greatly preferred it to music. The master too was expensive, so I was obliged to give up all hope of instruction; but I had heard of some person who had learned to read and understand a language perfectly without being able to pronounce a word, and who found it very easy, when chance gave him an opportunity to learn the pronunciation afterwards. I begged papa to buy me a grammar and dictionary, borrowed all the English books I could get from my school-fellows, learned them almost by heart from having read them so often; and when the Baroness Z— lent me some English novels at Seon, I scarcely missed my dictionary, which I had left in Munich.” “What extraordinary perseverance!” exclaimed Hamilton, with undisguised admiration. “Mamma would call it obstinacy,” said Hildegarde quickly. “Nothing would induce me to tell her that I had dared to learn English, after she had refused to let me take lessons.” “There is a great difference between obstinacy and perseverance,” said Hamilton. “The difference is sometimes difficult to define—my step-mother says I am obstinate!” “I really do think your organ of firmness must be tolerably well developed,” said Hamilton, laughingly placing his hand on the top of her head. Hildegarde coloured, and hastily pushed back her chair—he saw she did not understand him, but he was too lazy to explain. The thought passed quickly through his mind, that it was odd his not as yet having met a single person who understood or was interested about phrenology in Germany—the country of Gall and Spurzheim!—while in England most people had read Combe’s works, attended lectures on, or had at least heard phrenology spoken of sufficiently to understand what he had just said. “You can keep the book if you wish it,” he observed, in order to renew the conversation. “But you have not quite read it,” said Hildegarde, “and I can imagine nothing more disagreeable than resigning a novel before one knows how it ends. Perhaps other people do not feel the same degree of interest that I do, but——” “I have often sat up until four o’clock in the morning to read an interesting novel,” said Hamilton. “It must be very pleasant to have a light as long as one pleases at night! Mamma is quite surprised when I ask for a candle oftener than every three days, and then she always observes that sitting up at night is very injurious to the health and eyes, and I get nothing but little ends of candle for a fortnight afterwards.” “I will give you as many candles as you can burn,” said Hamilton, laughing.