Page:Leah Reed--Brenda's summer at Rockley.djvu/222

206 even to bathe? With a good book in her hand, a reader forgets to grumble about the weather, and two books a  week is a small allowance for the average bright girl. The plan of the reading class pleased Brenda when she found  that fiction was to have so large a place in the programme;  and so, starting without any prejudice against the plan,  she soon found herself enjoying the books that the others  were reading. Moreover, one day when she took down one of her “Countess” novels to re-peruse it, she was  surprised to find it seem rather flat and trivial. At first she could not understand this change of view, but, on talking it over with Nora, the latter said heartily, “Why, of  course, that’s the very thing that would happen after you  had begun to read standard books. You may not realize that you are doing it, but all the time you are comparing  the other books you read with those of the great authors. There,” as if she had made a discovery, “I suppose that that is why they are called ‘standard.’ They are used to  measure other books by.”

“Well, I'm not sure,” said Brenda, “that I really compared ‘Mollie’s Eyes’ with ‘John Brent.’ Of course they ’re not a bit alike, and still, when I was looking  over ‘Mollie’s Eyes’ yesterday, I could not help thinking  that it was very silly, and not a bit like life, and it  did not even seem as exciting as it used to.”

Nora gave Brenda’s hand a gentle squeeze. “I’ve been going through something like that myself,” she said; “I  had a novel in my bag that I bought on the news-stand  coming down here, and do you know I positively could