The Man who Won by Baillie Reynolds

"And I, so young then, was not sullen. Soon / I used to get up early, just to sit / And watch the morning quicken in the grey, / And hear the silence open like a flower, / Leaf after leaf -- and stroke with listless hand / The woodbine through the window. " / -- ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING.

Melicent's little bedroom was her sole refuge; and this her aunt, in her petty tyranny, denied her as often as she could. It was her theory that solitude was bad for girls. She liked them to be always herded together, under the eye of Tommy or one of their parents. Melicent must work, write, read, in the constant babble and racket of the schoolroom. The first time she found her niece curled up in the window-seat of her own room with a book, she swooped upon her with her sweetest smile, to see what the volume was. On discovering it to be "Alison's History of Europe," she shifted her attack from the reading to the spot where it took place. It was a draughty window; dear Melicent had better go into the warm schoolroom.