If in our trio there was a superior and a leader, it was Diana.
Physically, she far excelled me: she was handsome; she was
vigorous. In her animal spirits there was an affluence of life and
certainty of flow, such as excited my wonder, while it baffled my
comprehension. I could talk a while when the evening commenced, but
the first gush of vivacity and fluency gone, I was fain to sit on a
stool at Diana's feet, to rest my head on her knee, and listen
alternately to her and Mary, while they sounded thoroughly the topic
on which I had but touched. Diana offered to teach me German. I
liked to learn of her: I saw the part of instructress pleased and
suited her; that of scholar pleased and suited me no less. Our
natures dovetailed: mutual affection--of the strongest kind--was
the result. They discovered I could draw: their pencils and
colour-boxes were immediately at my service. My skill, greater in
this one point than theirs, surprised and charmed them. Mary would
sit and watch me by the hour together: then she would take lessons;
and a docile, intelligent, assiduous pupil she made. Thus occupied,
and mutually entertained, days passed like hours, and weeks like
days.
As to Mr. St John, the intimacy which had arisen so naturally and
rapidly between me and his sisters did not extend to him. One
reason of the distance yet observed between us was, that he was
comparatively seldom at home: a large proportion of his time
appeared devoted to visiting the sick and poor among the scattered
population of his parish.
No weather seemed to hinder him in these pastoral excursions: rain
or fair, he would, when his hours of morning study were over, take
his hat, and, followed by his father's old pointer, Carlo, go out on
his mission of love or duty--I scarcely know in which light he
regarded it. Sometimes, when the day was very unfavourable, his
sisters would expostulate. He would then say, with a peculiar
smile, more solemn than cheerful "And if I let a gust of wind or a sprinkling of rain turn me aside
from these easy tasks, what preparation would such sloth be for the
future I propose to myself?"
Diana and Mary's general answer to this question was a sigh, and
some minutes of apparently mournful meditation.
But besides his frequent absences, there was another barrier to
friendship with him: he seemed of a reserved, an abstracted, and
even of a brooding nature. Zealous in his ministerial labours,
blameless in his life and habits, he yet did not appear to enjoy
that mental serenity, that inward content, which should bet he
reward of every sincere Christian and practical philanthropist.
Often, of an evening, when he sat at the window, his desk and papers
before him, he would cease reading or writing, rest his chin on his
hand, and deliver himself up to I know not what course of thought;
but that it was perturbed and exciting might be seen in the frequent
flash and changeful dilation of his eye.