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40 BIOGRAPHY.
This jarred upon my father’s temper, and became the cause
of many unhappy montents for her.
These exhibitions of our talents were always held in
town, for nobody was ever invited out to Arsta.
Although Arsta was situated at a distance of only twenty
English miles from the metropolis, our family léd there,
nevertheless, a very solitary life, totally separated from the
outer world. If the milk-carriers had not brought out
news of what was going on in the neighboring capital, we
might have imagined that we were distant from it hundreds
of miles, in some very remote province. My father felt
embarrassed when receiving visitors in the country, and
would therefore never invite any body to see us while we
were there. The Rector and Curate of the parish, with their
wives, were the only people who once or twice were invited
to dinner; my father seemed then to have performed an
arduous duty, and these people were the only ones which
we saw during the summer. My father, who in his youth
had studied at two universities in Germany and afterwards
had travelled a great deal in foreign countries, felt occa-
sionally the want of change and diversion. When, there-
fore, the life at Arsta became too monotonous, he went to
town for one or two days; but it happened frequently that,
on his arrival there, he never left his rooms, and returned
to Arsta without having spoken to a single human being. .
When he came back and had saluted us, he always asked
for news; but as never any thing happened at Arsta, we
had no news to tell. One day, however, we were more for-
tunate. It was late in the autumn; a number of bullocks
had been let out to be watered at a pond, and when they
had approached a spot in the “English Park,” a kind of
inclosure near the mansion where, at that season, the gates
were taken away, every bullock, on crossing that spot, was
seized with a dancing fit, so that they began jumping,
prancing, and kicking their hind legs in the air. This was
something very strange, something wonderful, a real événe-
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