writing about,--though not perhaps in the way it is talked about. Besides,
Mrs. Percivale, my clients want to know more about your sisters, and little
Theodora, or Dorothea, or--what was her name in the book?"

The end of it was, that I agreed to try to the extent of a dozen pages or
so.




CHAPTER II.

I TRY.


I hope no one will think I try to write like my father; for that would be
to go against what he always made a great point of,--that nobody whatever
should imitate any other person whatever, but in modesty and humility allow
the seed that God had sown in her to grow. He said all imitation tended to
dwarf and distort the plant, if it even allowed the seed to germinate at
all. So, if I do write like him, it will be because I cannot help it.

I will just look how "The Seaboard Parish" ends, and perhaps that will put
into my head how I ought to begin. I see my father does mention that I had
then been Mrs. Percivale for many years. Not so very many though,--five or
six, if I remember rightly, and that is three or four years ago. Yes; I
nave been married nine years. I may as well say a word as to how it came
about; and, if Percivale doesn't like it, the remedy lies in his pen. I
shall be far more thankful to have any thing struck out on suspicion than
remain on sufferance.