The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion #1

by Beth Brower

of Paradise Lost.

Cousin Archibald’s plan to keep me uneducated suffers a retreat.

him. “I may live in the garret, Parian, but I am the legal owner of this house, and when I am one and twenty—a blessed event which happens in January—I will no longer need Cousin Archibald to play guardian. My new-found authority may easily extend to the house purse, which pays your wage.”

He seems to know just what to do with language. It hovers beside him, a fluid and mischievous thing, like Prospero’s Ariel. And so Young Hawkes weaves spells with words and we sit enrapt.

“No, Agnes, she was not a Turk, but she loved bright colours, and always said it was her inheritance from her Portuguese mother.”

Near the end of Mary’s visit, I asked, “Is your Miss Lamb related to Charles and Mary Lamb?”

Last year, while in Bournemouth, I met a young woman who had just completed her education at Miss Prim’s. She could read Latin, was fluent in history, art, science, could sing like a songbird, and was a picture of health, having spent enough time outside to ensure strong lungs. When she shared a charming anecdote from her Egyptian history class, I turned rather green with envy.

and you will look very thoughtful and intelligent. Let us hope you are. Unless you hope to marry soon. Then let us hope you are not. It takes a courageous man to marry a woman with a mind.”