"
"I shall find it most interesting," said lady Arctura: "so much I
can tell already! I never saw anything of the kind before, and had
no idea how poetry was made. Does it always take so much labour?"
"Some verses take much more; some none at all. The labour is in
getting the husks of expression cleared off, so that the thought may
show itself plainly."
At this point Mrs. Brookes, thinking probably the young people had
had long enough conference, entered, and after a little talk with
her, lady Arctura kissed her and bade her good night. Donal retired
to his aerial chamber, wondering whether the lady of the house had
indeed changed as much as she seemed to have changed.
>From that time, whether it was that lady Arctura had previously
avoided meeting him and now did not, or from other causes, Donal and
she met much oftener as they went about the place, nor did they ever
pass without a mutual smile and greeting.
The next day but one, she brought him his papers to the schoolroom.
She had read every erasure and correction, she told him, and could
no longer have had a doubt that the writer of the papers was the
maker of the verses, even had she not previously learned thorough
confidence in the man himself.
"They would possibly fail to convince a jury though!" he said, as he
rose and went to throw them in the fire.
Divining his intent, Arctura darted after him, and caught them just
in time.
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