A
piano and a harp were sent to the Elms. Every week Lady Earle
dispatched a large box of books, and the governess was quite
content.
Mrs. Vyvian, to whom Lady Earle intrusted every detail of her
son's marriage, was well pleased to find that Dora liked her and
began to show some taste for study. Dora, who would dream of
other things when Ronald read, now tried to learn herself. She
was not ashamed to sit hour after hour at the piano trying to
master some simple little air, or to ask questions when anything
puzzled her in her reading. Mrs. Vyvian, so calm and wise, so
gentle, yet so strong, taught her so cleverly that Dora never
felt her own ignorance, nor did she grow disheartened as she had
done with Ronald.
The time came when Dora could play pretty simple ballads, singing
them in her own bird-like, clear voice, and when she could
appreciate great writers, and speak of them without any mistake
either as to their names or their works.
It was a simple, pleasant, happy life; the greater part of the
day was spent by mother children in study. In the evening came
long rambles through the green woods, where Dora seemed to know
the name and history of every flower that grew; over the smiling
meadows, where the kine stood knee-deep in the long, scented
grass; over the rocks, and down by the sea shore, where the waves
chanted their grand anthem, and broke in white foam drifts upon
the sands.
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