Page:Leah Reed--Brenda's summer at Rockley.djvu/382



the influence of Brenda on Amy had been less marked than that of Amy on Brenda, it had still been  sufficient to make Mrs. Redmond approve highly of the  intimacy between the two. She was pleased that this companionship had come to take her daughter out of  herself. She noticed with some amusement that Amy’s poetry was taking a more cheerful cast, and that she less  often wrote about “sad heart” and “dreary days,” and  other melancholy themes. Indeed, she was not at all sorry that Amy spent less time now in verse-writing, for  she knew that her daughter’s immature efforts had little  value, and that her poetic talent would not be entirely  blighted if permitted to rest for a while. She had never suggested to Amy that she should write less, fearing that  by so doing she might seem unsympathetic. But since this result had been accomplished in another way, she  felt extremely gratified.

As I have said before, the angles of Amy’s disposition were decidedly rounded off by her contact with her new  friends. She had become more tolerant of the foibles and frivolities, which formerly she had so strongly disapproved. She had a genuine admiration for Julia, which increased when she learned that she was preparing for