Page:Walter Scott - The Monastery (Henry Frowde, 1912).djvu/177

RV 109 (Rh) assigned her was conned over in company with Edward, and by him explained and re-explained, and again illustrated, until she became perfectly mistress of it.

In the beginning of their studies, Halbert had been their school companion. But the boldness and impatience of his disposition soon quarrelled with an occupation in which, without assiduity and unremitted attention, no progress was to be expected. The sub-prior's visits were at irregular intervals, and often weeks would intervene between them, in which case Halbert was sure to forget all that had been prescribed for him to learn, and much which he had partly acquired before. His deficiencies on these occasions gave him pain, but it was not of that sort which produces amendment.

For a time, like all who are fond of idleness, he endeavoured to detach the attention of his brother and Mary Avenel from their task, rather than to learn his own, and such dialogues as the following would ensue:

'Take your bonnet, Edward, and make haste; the Laird of Colmslie is at the head of the glen with his hounds.'

'I care not, Halbert,' answered the younger brother; 'two brace of dogs may kill a deer without my being there to see them, and I must help Mary Avenel with her lesson.'

'Aye! you will labour at the monk's lessons till you turn monk yourself,' answered Halbert. 'Mary, will you go with me, and I will show you the cushat's nest I told you of?'

'I cannot go with you, Halbert,' answered Mary, 'because I must study this lesson; it will take me long to learn it. I am sorry I am so dull, for if I could get my task as fast as Edward, I should like to go with you.'

'Should you indeed?' said Halbert; 'then I will wait for you; and, what is more, I will try to get my lesson also.'

With a smile and a sigh he took up the primer, and began heavily to con over the task which had been assigned him. As if banished from the society of the two others, he sat sad and solitary in one of the deep window-recesses, and after in vain struggling with the difficulties of his task and his disinclination to learn it, he found himself involuntarily engaged in watching the movements of the other two students, instead of toiling any longer.