All in a garden fair; the simple story of three boys ... - University Library

i8o ALL LX A GARDEN FALR.
tentativos, at tlic best not too good, tlie ordeal
is terrible.
In tliis case tliat dreadful feeling already
alluded to, of chill disappointment and disgust
with liis own work, remained witli him from
the beginning to the end, and it made him read
badly, so tliat he did not even do his work
justice. He saw, too, that Claire was dis-
appointed ; he saw it because her eyes, which
should have brightened liad the verses pleased,
and were tell-tale eyes, dropped, and slie
did not lift them again. There was no en-
couragement in her drooping head and down-
cast eyes. The critic's upper lip was evidently
stiffened to say cruel tilings.
As for the verses, what can one expect of
eighteen? They were skeletons, feeble imi-
tations, weak in language, Mse in sentiment;
they had every fault. They had, however, one
virtue—they possessed that quality difficult to
define, impossible to describe, which is called
promise. If you go to the Grosvenor Gallery,
for instance, or any other gallery, you will find