People of power care all the time. It is their life-blood to succeed;
they must encourage their precision of eye and thought by repeated
triumphs, which so soothe and rejoice the nerves.
He was very kind in amusing me by aid of my slate. That sort of
pastime suited my hours of silence, which became less and less broken
by the talkative vein. His forefinger rubbed away defects in the
aspect of faces or animals with a lion-like suppleness of sweep that
seemed to me to wipe out the world. We also had a delicious game of a
labyrinth of lines, which it was necessary to traverse with the pencil
without touching the hedges, as I called the winding marks. We
wandered in and around without a murmur, and I reveled in delight
because he was near.
Walking was always a great resource in the family, and it was a
half-hearted matter for us unless we were at his side. His gait was
one of long, easy steps which were leisurely and not rapid, and he
cast an occasional look around, stopping if anything more lovely than
usual was to be seen in sky or landscape. It is the people who love
their race even better than themselves who can take into their thought
an outdoor scene. In England the outdoor life had many enchantments
of velvet sward upon broad hills and flowers innumerable and fragrant.
A little letter of Una's not long after we arrived in Rockferry
alludes to this element in our happiness:--
"We went to take a walk to-day, and I do not think I ever had such a
beautiful walk before in all my life.
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