And sweet as English air could make her, she."

Her brother, in the midst of a popular " amusement-



CHAP. VII "the PRINCESS" AND "MAUD" 83

combiiLed-with-instmction " scene, had read of some
heroic ancient lady, concluding with —

" Where lives ttere sucli a woman now ? "

To which Lilia answered — •

" There are thousands now-
Such women, hut convention heats them down " ;

and thereupon she propounded in comic version a scheme
for the regeneration of womanhood — a college and so
on, with death for penalty upon "any male thing"
who intruded therein. This gives the cue, and the
company agree to construct a tale between them, songs
— those beautiful songs added later — to separate the
parts. Thus the idea of the story arose, and as it ad-
vanced it was driven more and more towards a solemn
close by the spirit of the women of the party, and
when it is finished one of the tale-tellers is com-
missioned to recast the whole as a poem. So much
for the prologue. ISText for the story.
