* [According to the grammars, I ought to have written which, but
it will not do. I could, I think, tell why, but prefer leaving the
question to the reader.]
When his mistress mentioned the proposal of her friend with regard
to the new novel, he at once expressed his willingness to attempt
compliance, fearing only, he said, that his English would prove
offensive and his Scotch unintelligible. The task was nowise alarming
to him, for he had read aloud much to the schoolmaster, who had also
insisted that he should read aloud when alone, especially verse,
in order that he might get all the good of its outside as well as
inside--its sound as well as thought, the one being the ethereal
body of the other. And he had the best primary qualifications for
the art, namely, a delight in the sounds of human speech, a value
for the true embodiment of thought, and a good ear, mental as
well as vocal, for the assimilation of sound to sense. After these
came the quite secondary, yet valuable gift of a pleasant voice,
manageable for reflection; and with such an outfit, the peculiarities
of his country's utterance, the long drawn vowels, and the outbreak
of feeling in chant-like tones and modulations, might be forgiven,
and certainly were forgiven by Lady Clementina, who, even in his
presence, took his part against the objections of his mistress.
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