Which in those years I heard.
‘“Thus fares it still in our decay:
And yet the wiser mind
Mourns less for what Age takes away
Than what it leaves behind.”’
Here the lady paused. ‘I think these verses are all that I can remember of the poem at present. But they impressed themselves on my memory long since, as a delicious description of calmly happy old age, of friendship founded on sympathetic tastes, with a setting for the incident of the rural loveliness of an English summer day.’
Much applause was evoked by the recitation, given with taste and feeling.
‘Why, mother, I had no idea you had such [385] ]a sentimental vein in your composition,’ said Hermione. ‘Vanda and I used to think you were quite stern about unprofitable reading, as you used to call anything but history and language in the old Carjagong days!’
‘Everything depends upon the proper time and place,’ replied Mrs. Banneret, with a quiet smile. ‘You girls and boys would have learned very little if you had not been kept to your morning lessons in those days.’
‘But we were so terribly fond of books,’ argued Vanda; ‘it ran in the blood. Why, father used to read on horseback, when he took those journeys to other goldfields and places—when he was driving, too—by himself; you know he did!’