Page:Traits and Trials.pdf/303

Rh shadows of that gloomy tree, for the whole of my playtime, I was there How well I recollect the eagerness with which, one morning, I sprang into its shade. The day before I had been to a juvenile ball given in the neighbourhood. I was dressed with unusual care—and I am convinced that dress is the universal passion—and turned to leave the nursery with an unusual glow of complacency, one of the servants smoothing down a rebellious curl. As I past I heard the other say "leave well alone"—and unfortunately I heard the rejoinder also—"Leave ill alone, you mean; did you ever see such a little plain thing." This was but the beginning of my mortifications, that evening was but the first of many coming events that cast their shadows before. Still it was my earliest experience of the bitterness of neglect, and of the solitude of a crowd. I had for several hours the melancholy satisfaction of sitting unnoticed in a corner; at length