learning. There is little that is worth saying which has not already
been beautifully said by the ancients, little that is worthy of
meditation on which they have not already profoundly reflected, save,
indeed, the one great subject of Christian meditation. This
foundation, my dear Angela, you possess to an eminent degree.
Henceforth you will need no assistance from me or any other man, for,
to your trained mind, all ordinary knowledge will be easy to
assimilate. You will receive in the course of a few days a parting
present from myself in the shape of a box of carefully chosen books on
European literature and history. Devote yourself to the study of
these, and of the German language, which was your mother's native
tongue, for the next year, and then I shall consider that you are
fairly finished, and then, too, my dear Angela, I shall expect to reap
a full reward for my labours."

"What is it that you will expect of me?"

"I shall expect, Angela," and he rose from his chair and walked up and
down the room in his excitement--"I shall expect to see you take your
proper place in your generation. I shall say: 'Choose your own line,
become a critical scholar, a practical mathematician, or--and perhaps
that is what you are most suited for with your imaginative powers--a
writer of fiction. For remember that fiction, properly understood and
directed to worthy aims, is the noblest and most far-reaching, as it
is also the most difficult of the arts.' In watching the success that
will assuredly attend you in this or any other line, I shall be amply
rewarded for my trouble."

Angela shook her head with a gesture of doubt, but he did not wait for
her to answer.