18591 WORK IN SOUTHERN COUNTIES 581
down ill's t. lie comes in pre-engrossed, and there is seldom any morning salutation. At breakfast I sit (he wills it so) at the end of the table, pour out his excessively weak tea, and put the heavy buttered buns which ho loves within his easy reach. When we arc alone, I eat my own bread and butter in silence; but if undergraduates breakfast with us, it is my duty, if I know anything about it, HO to turn the conversation that he may learn what their "lines' are, and converse accordingly. Certainly the merry nonsense and childlike buoyancy which cause his breakfast parties to be so delightful, make the contrast of his silent irresponsiveness rather trying when we, are alone—-it is such a complete "you are not worth talking to/ However, I have learnt to enjoy the first, and to take no notice of the other; indeed, if I can do so quite effectually, it gcnor-ally ends in his becoming pleasanter. In amiable moments he will sometimes glance at my MSS., and give them a sanction like that of Cardinal Richelieu v Aecepi, legi, probahi/ After breakfast, he often ban something for me to do for him, great plans, maps, or drawinga, for bin loe-turoH, on huge sheets of paper, which take a good deal of time, but which he never notices except when the moment comes for using them. All morning ho stands at his desk by the study window (where 1 see him HometimoH from the garden, which he expects mo to look after), and he writes shoot after sheet, which ho HomcttmcH team up and flings to rejoin the letters of the morning, which cover thci carpet in all directions,1 It would never do for him to marry, a wife would be HO annoyed at Inn hopclc*mly untidy ways; at bin tearing every new hook to pieces, for instance, ImcaiiHc ho w too impatient to cut it open (though I now do a good doal in thin way). Meantime, an (Joetho nays, 4 it in the errors of men that make them amiable/ and I Iwliovo ho is all tine better loved for his peculiarities.
1 Hin Iwuilwrilwtf wan MO illt<#UtI«i that printura c'hiirgtnl half uncrown it «hi*<«t extra for satthig up i*a«h fth«t*t of hi» *g copy/'