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From the period in which we introduced Maria, until she completed her fifteenth year, nothing occurred worthy of notice, except the fact that she really claimed the promise of Elderton, and notwithstanding a decided predilection for music and a passion for reading, which often encroached upon the hours devoted to rest, she yet engaged in learning the German language with such avidity and perseverance as to render her a delightful pupil—at a time when her mind was fully occupied with this pursuit, and she was enabled to enter with a high relish into the beauties of the German Poets, Mrs. Falconer mentioned an intention of sending Ellen Powis for a couple of years to a superior school:

"School! dear mother—you forget that she is older than me, because she happens to be less."

"No my love I do not, she is precisely at the age when a sensible, reflecting girl, will really derive benefit from the lessons she will receive. Ellen has a very small fortune, and it is desirable that she should improve it, which she might do in the most respectable manner if her education were more complete."