and so great was the charm of her conversation, that there was continual
strife among the girls as to which of them should walk with her. The
teachers had to settle it by making it depend upon alphabetical
succession."

Leaving the school in Coventry at the age of fifteen, Marian continued her
studies at home. The year following, her mother died; and this event, as
she afterwards said, first made her acquainted with "the unspeakable grief
of a last parting." Soon after, her older sister and her brother were
married and left home. She alone remained with her father, and was for
several years his housekeeper. "He offered to get a housekeeper," says Miss
Blind, "as not the house only, but farm matters had to be looked after, and
he was always tenderly considerate of 'the little wench,' as he called her.
But his daughter preferred taking the whole management of the place into
her own hands, and she was as conscientious and diligent in the discharge
of her domestic duties as in the prosecution of the studies she carried on
at the same time." Her experiences at this period have been made use of in
more than one of her characters. The dairy scenes in _Adam Bede_ are so
perfectly realistic because she was familiar with all the processes of
butter and cheese making.

In 1841 her father gave up his business to his son and moved to Foleshill,
one mile from Coventry. A pleasant house and surroundings made the new
home, and her habits of thought and life became more exact and fastidious.
The frequent absence of her father gave her much time for reading, which
she eagerly improved. Books were more accessible, though her own library
was a good one.

She zealously began and carried on a systematic course of studies, such as
gave her the most thorough results of culture. She took up Latin and Greek