Part 4 (2/2)

My overnesses--we had two at a time, and of every nationality, French, Gerhone of them really love me Mary Morison, [Foot note: Miss Morison, a cousin of Mr Willia ladies in Innerleithen, was the first person who influenced me and my sister Laura She is alive now and a woman of rare intellect and character She was fonder of Laura than of me, but so wereabout my sister and Alfred Lyttelton, whoreat deal of nonsense has been written and talked about Laura

There are two printed accounts of her that are true: one has been written by the present Mrs Alfred Lyttelton, in generous and tender passages in the life of her husband, and the other by A G

C Liddell; but even these do not quite give the brilliant, witty Laura of my heart I will quote what my dear friend, Doll Liddell, wrote of her in his Notes from the Life of an Ordinary Mortal:

My acquaintance with Miss Tennant, which led to a close intimacy with herself, and afterwards with her family, was an event of such iht to attempt some description of her This is not an easy task, as a more indescribable person never existed, for no one could form a correct idea of what she was like who had not had opportunities of feeling her personal charh to most persons who had known her some weeks she would often seeive no idea of the brightness and vivacity of her expression, or of that mixture of innocence and uished her Her figure was very small but well made, and she was always prettily and daintily dressed If the outoman is difficult to describe, what can be said of her character?

To begin with her lighter side, she had reduced fascination to a fine art in a style entirely her own I have never known her ate in a few days It is as difficult to give any idea of her methods as to describe a dance when the music is unheard Perhaps one may say that her special characteristic was the way in which she corooman

Her victienerally beca was, however, only the ripple on the surface In the deeper parts of her nature was a fund of earnestness and a sympathy which enabled her to throw herself into the lives of other people in a quite unusual way, and was one of the great secrets of the general affection she inspired It was not, however, as is sos, merely emotional, but ih perhaps somewhat impulsive, efforts to help her fellows of all sorts and conditions

On her inality of her letters and sayings, and her appreciation of as best in literature, that her gifts were of a high order

In addition, she had a subtle huhtful and produced phrases and fancies of characteristic daintiness But there was so more than all this, an extra dose of life, which caused a kind of electricity to flash about her wherever she went, lighting up all hom she cagerated, and will be put down to the writer having dwelt in her ”Aeaean isle” but I think that if it should meet the eyes of any who knew her in her short life, they will understand what it atteood, but his poem is even better; and there is a prophetic touch in the line, ”Shadoith so of the future years”

A face upturned towards the ht, And all around the black and boundless night, And voices of the winds which bode and cry

A childish face, but grave with curves that lie Ready to breathe in laughter or in tears, Shadoith so of the future years That makes one sorrowful, I know not why

O still, small face, like a white petal torn Fro On soe fates and whither art thou borne?

Laura had hter Elizabeth Bibesco's Godfather, Godfrey Webb--a conspicuoussince dead--wrote this of her:

”HALF CHILD, HALF WOMAN”

Tennyson's description of Laura in 1883:

”Half child, half woman”--wholly to be loved By either name she found an easy way Into my heart, whose sentinels all proved Unfaithful to their trust, the luckless day She entered there ”Prudence and reason both!

Did you not question her? Hoas it pray She so persuaded you?” ”Nor sleep nor sloth,”

They cried, ”o'erca past us, and then turning round Too late your heart to save, a woman's face we found”

Laura was not a plaster saint; she was a generous, claenius, full of huination, te this ot were really like, what the differences and what the resemblances between them were”

The men who could answer this question best would be Lord Gladstone, Arthur Balfour, Lord Midleton, Sir Rennell Rodd, or Lord Curzon (of Kedleston) I can only say what I think the differences and rese than Laura, but she had rarer and more beautiful eyes Brains are such a se of thee of twenty-three, when she died, few of us are at the height of our powers, but Laura made and left a deeper impression on the world in her short life than any one that I have ever known What she really had to a greater degree than other people was true spirituality, a feeling of intimacy with the other world and a sense of the love and wisdom of God and His plan of life

Her ion; and her heart was fixed

This did not prevent her froreat flirt The first time that a man came to Glen and liked me better than Laura, she was immensely surprised--not more so than I was--and had it not been for the passionate love which we cherished for each other, there must inevitably have been much jealousy between us

On several occasions the same man proposed to both of us, and we had to find out from each other what our intentions were

I only re hurt by Laura on one occasion and it came about in this way We were always dressed alike, and as ere the sarew older