always made his heart beat high with gratitude. They were his first
exemplars of finished courtesy, of delicate culture; and he could
never sufficiently regret that no one of them was aware how
thankfully he recognised his debt.

In longing for the intimacy of refined people, he began to modify
his sentiments with regard to the female sex. His first prize-day at
Whitelaw was the first occasion on which he sat in an assembly where
ladies (as he understood the title) could be seen and heard. The
impression he received was deep and lasting. On the seat behind him
were two girls whose intermittent talk held him with irresistible
charm throughout the whole ceremony. He had not imagined that girls
could display such intelligence, and the sweet clearness of their
intonation, the purity of their accent, the grace of their habitual
phrases, were things altogether beyond his experience. This was not
the English he had been wont to hear on female lips. His mother and
his aunt spoke with propriety; their associates were soft-tongued;
but here was something quite different from inoffensiveness of tone
and diction. Godwin appreciated the differentiating cause. These
young ladies behind him had been trained from the cradle to speak
for the delight of fastidious ears; that they should be grammatical
was not enough--they must excel in the art of conversational
music. Of course there existed a world where only such speech was
interchanged, and how inestimably happy those men to whom the sphere
was native!

When the proceedings were over, he drew aside and watched the two
girls as they mingled with acquaintances; he kept them in view until
they left the College. An emotion such as this he had never known;
for the first time in his life he was humiliated without