Page:Sir William Herschel, his life and works (1881).djvu/53

Rh with a little notion of music, I might obtain a place as governess in some family where the want of a knowledge of French would be no objection."

A change was soon to come in her life too; her brother wrote to propose that she should join him at Bath—

... "to make the trial, if, by his instruction, I might not become a useful singer for his winter concerts and oratorios; he advised my brother to give me some lessons by way of beginning; but that if, after a trial of two years, we should not find it answer our expectation, he would bring me back again. This at first seemed to be agreeable to all parties, but by the time I had set my heart upon this change in my situation,  began to turn the whole scheme into ridicule, and, of course, he never heard the sound of my voice except in speaking, and yet I was left in the harassing uncertainty whether I was to go or not. I resolved at last to prepare, as far as lay in my power, for both cases, by taking, in the first place, every opportunity, when all were from home, to imitate, with a gag between my teeth, the solo parts of concertos, shake and all, such as I had heard them play on the violin; in consequence I had gained a tolerable execution before I knew how to sing. I next began to knit ruffles, which were intended for my brother, in case I remained at home—else they were to be. For my mother and brother D. I knitted as many cotton stockings as would last two years at least."