"  'There  !  take  it,  dear,  take  it  !  '  she  would  say;
'and  don't  go  on  fretting  for  what  can't  be  helped.'"

There  were  generally  about  forty  pupils  in  the
school,  including  six  boarders,  all  "  gentlewomen  of
good  birth."  Elizabeth  Stevenson,  who  in  the  story
figures  as  Margaret  Dawson,  was  invited  by  Lady
Ludlow  to  fill  the  vacancy  caused  by  the  death  of
one  of  the  boarders.
"  I  see  that  letter  now ;  a  large  sheet  of  thick
yellow  paper,  with  a  straight  broad  margin  left  on
the  left-hand  side  of  the  delicate  Italian  writing.  .  ..
"  My  mother  dropped  the  letter  and  sat  silent.
"  '  I  shall  not  know  what  to  do  without  you,
Margaret.'

"  A  moment  before,  like  a  young  untried  girl  as  I
was,  I  had  been  pleased  at  the  notion  of  seeing  a  new
place  and  leading  a  new  life.  But  now — my  mother's
look  of  sorrow,  and  the  children's  cry  of  remonstrance.
'  Mother,  I  won't  go,'  I  said.
"'Nay!  but  you  had  better,'  replied  she,  shaking
her  head.  '  Lady  Ludlow  has  much  power.  .  .  It  will
not  do  to  slight  her  offer.' "

The  novelist  had  an  excellent  memory,  and  the
different  changes  in  her  early  life  made  a  deep  im-
pression. My  Lady  Ludlow  was  written  more  than
thirty  years  after  she  went  to  Stratford-on-Avon.
