Various

“ In the small hours of the morning, when dancing was ended, Mrs. Bryce drove home, with the two girls, in the fine yellow coach, which was considered to be a suitable “equipage” for one in her position. Mr. Bryce, having a cold, had not gone with them. The girls retired to their room, and Molly would have liked to question her companion, had she dared. But Polly, with all her sweetness, could hold folks aloof if she chose; and this night she did choose. She was very pale and tired—sad too, Molly thought, now that the excitement was over. ”

“ Even in cases dealing with the lowest vital points, such as eating, dressing, or sleeping, Nature by no means always directs us aright. When you have been running on a warm day and have got very hot, what does Nature tell you to do? To sit in a draught and get cold. And yet if you value your health, this would be the very last thing that you would dare to attempt. ”

“ Some animals can do this, but man is not fitted for living in this way. With the usual logic evinced by most people when they are contradicted, we are at once answered, “Oh, if what I do is no good, as I cannot take exercise when I like, I shall not go out at all!” Evidently concluding that she takes care of her own health out of consideration for our feelings! ”

“ Physical exercise is as essential to health as is food or sleep; but, because the need of it is not brought home to us so forcibly as these two other necessities, it rarely receives that attention which it deserves. Everyone knows full well that we may eat too little or too much, that we may eat at improper times, that everything that we can put into our interiors is not equally wholesome, that much that we can eat is positively injurious, and that we must eat every day, be the weather fine or rainy. ”

“ Eulirion—beautiful lily! What an appropriate name for the superb plants contained in this group! Beautiful lilies they are indeed, beautiful in shape, in colour and in scent! What flowers will you compare with the members of this group? None of the priceless orchids or choice stove plants are anything like so beautiful as these misunderstood and grossly neglected lilies! ”

“ Of all earthly gifts we look upon good health as the greatest. We should doubt if anyone would choose gold in preference to health. And yet why is it that most persons strive so much harder for the former than for the latter. Perhaps it is that a healthy person has an idea that her health can take care of itself; whereas she knows full well that wealth cannot be acquired without working for it. Or perhaps it is that people do not know how to take care of their health. ”

“ Molly’s face took an arch set. “Ay, since Captain Peirce came in for a great sum of money on the death of his grandfather. He will be a richer man than Denham—by a matter of ten pounds to one pound.”
“Phew!” muttered Jack, in disgust. “Ivor will have enough. But as to Polly—I cannot verily believe that her affections are engaged in any other direction.”
“Nor do I believe it, Jack. Yet—I am not always sure.”
“If she casts him off, she will deserve to suffer for it, all her life long. She will lose one of the best men living.” ”

“ L. Philippinense is a low-growing lily, barely exceeding a foot in height. It never, to our knowledge, bears more than a solitary blossom, but that one blossom is so fine that its beauty makes ample recompense for the paucity of flowers. ”

“ All forms of exercise are not equally good. Some are very beneficial, others are doubtfully healthy, others again are downright noxious.
Walking is so infinitely the best form of exercise, that to compare any other with it is ridiculous. Walking is essential to health, and no other form of exercise can be substituted for it.
Boating, riding, and bicycling are fairly good forms of exercise, but none of these possesses the value of walking. Driving in a carriage is simply not exercise at all. You get a little fresh air and change of scene in driving ”

“ Ever so many people have an idea that you can lay in a stock of exercise, as you can fill a coal-cellar, and draw on the reserve when you are too lazy to renew the supply. These persons will tell you, “I do all my walking on one day, so that there is no necessity for me to go out any other day in the week. I walk twenty-one miles on that day, that is three miles for each day in the week, so I am all right on this score.” Now just consider one moment what you are doing, and you will agree with us that your method is not only fallacious, but exceedingly harmful. ”

“ One day you will be told that illustrious blood flows in your veins, but never forget that you must trace your line as far back as Sully before you find a name worthy to stand beside that of Martin. Grow up, then, to show yourself worthy of the memory of your ancestor, the devotion of your benefactor, and the patronage of the King! ”

“ The flowers which are white or pale yellow are usually solitary, but some varieties of Lilium Longiflorum bear as many as five or six blossoms on each stem. The leaves are linear, smooth and numerous, scattered and are all similar. These lilies are natives of Western Asia.
L. Longiflorum, the most important member of the group named after it, is one of the best known and highly appreciated members of the genus. It is usually grown as a pot plant. But why? Why do we so rarely see this plant in the garden? Oh, it is so tender! It will not stand our winters! It dwindles so when grown in the open! ”

“ Many of our outdoor games are good exercise, many are a little hard and excessive perhaps, but on the whole they are very healthy, unless carried to excess. These games are good because walking or running is an essential part of them. Golf is by far the most healthy of all games. As far as outsiders can tell, it seems to us to be walking with a little skill and excitement added to render the walking pleasant to those who will not walk for walking’s sake alone.
Of the forms of exercise that can be carried on indoors, we will say but little. ”

“ Even in England Napoleon was not without his enthusiastic admirers. There are always some whose party feeling is stronger than their patriotism; and there are commonly a few also who will sentimentally put a man upon a pedestal, with regard to his intellect only, apart from questions of character. This they did with Napoleon, adoring his genius, worshipping his success, ignoring his selfishness and the darker shades which belong to his history. ”

“ Then Linnæa—she who had looked forward all her life to the time when she would be allowed to go home—wrote and told them she would stay another year.
And the Linnæa that went to India at the end of that time was very different from the one that would have gone had the hidden love in her nature not been called forth by Gwendoline. Sometimes her schoolfellows and teachers had hard work to believe she could be the same person. She would never be what the world calls beautiful, but there was a sweet, refined expression about the face which now attracted, where formerly it had repelled. ”

“ He is the man who can brave disease, and who, if he by any misfortune happens to be injured, can bear the suffering like a man, and whose body is well capable of recovery from the many vicissitudes to which it is liable.
Exercise is essential in all weathers. Because to-day is wet, are you going to forego your walk? In England about one day in three is rainy. Are you going to suppress one-third of your necessary exercise from this cause? Oh, you are afraid of catching cold! Now English people talk a lot about catching cold, for they of all nations suffer most from this cause. ”

“ A fairly rich soil is really the best for this lily, for in such soil it does not dwindle so much as it does in a light soil.
In some places where it is otherwise impossible to flower this plant, success may be obtained by growing it in a mixture of sand, peat, and leaf-mould, so light that the hand can easily be forced below the bulbs.
This lily is more often grown in pots than in the ground. In this case do not put three large bulbs into one small pot, as is so often done. The lilies must starve in such a prison, and though they may flower one year, they will not do so again. ”

“ This plant should be grown like L. Longiflorum, but it likes a somewhat richer soil. It must be watered. In its native land it has hot rain all through its growing season. In our climate, a dry July or August, the two months in which the plant grows most rapidly, kills it, and this is the reason why this lily is so very seldom grown. Be this lily in the ground or in a pot, it must be thoroughly saturated every day from the time that it first shows its spike, till the buds change from green to white. ”

“ Half an hour’s dumb-bell exercise or mild gymnastics may be substituted for the day’s walk.
Exercise is best if taken in the morning. For very strong people it is preferable to take a walk before breakfast; but people who are not feeling up to the mark should not attempt to walk before having had some food.
You should never take exercise immediately after a meal, and conversely you should never eat till half an hour after a long walk, and you should never go to bed immediately you come home from a walk, but sit down quietly for at least half an hour before retiring. ”

“ But a civilised man is not a servant of Nature, and though he is unable to rebel against her, still he has the power to question her promptings and the will whereby to alter or nullify them. And if we think ever so shallowly we cannot escape from the knowledge that Nature very often prompts us to do what our higher understanding tells us is wrong, and if we do our duty we set aside the dictates of Nature in favour of our own consciousness. ”

“ Martin, your task is over, you have deserved well from all good men. You have shown our age a sight only too rare—gratitude, fidelity, respect. And you, Louis d’Aubespiné, since you are present at this solemnity, may it make a deep and lasting impression on your young heart. ”

“ Peggy lifted the ends of her apron in her hands and executed a dance of triumph on her own account when all was finished, and Rosalind said, “Weally, we have been clever! I think we may be proud of ourselves!” in amiable effusion.
The two girls went off to luncheon in a state of halcyon amiability which was new indeed in the history of their acquaintance, and Lady Darcy listened with an amused smile to their rhapsodies on the subject of the morning’s work, promising faithfully not to look at anything until the right moment should arrive and she should be summoned to gaze and admire. ”

“ This plant resembles the last, but its flowers are longer and larger though not so fine in colour. This plant bears the longest flowers of any lily, extra fine examples being upwards of a foot long. This lily will not grow well out of doors and should be grown in a conservatory. It is a very difficult plant to manage. Amongst other things, it has a creeping stem, and if grown in a pot it often sends up a shoot which meanders about beneath the soil, and eventually visits the light through a drainage hole, totally exhausted by its subterranean peregrinations. ”

“ Just as many blouses have been worn as ever this winter underneath the ever-fashionable coat and skirt; and at the sales there has been quite as great a rush for the remnants of silk, which are always prepared for those occasions. Nothing can be more ornate than some of the blouses and fancy tea-jackets; and there seems to be a very generally united opinion that, having a proper skirt to wear with them, they are not an extravagant purchase, as they perform so many parts and are suitable for a variety of occasions. ”

“ This is a perfectly lovely plant. As we are writing there is a specimen of this lily on the table before us. It is in a pot and is the result of a single bulb. There are eight blossoms, not one of which is aught but perfect. The blossoms are very long and possess the scent of lilac.
Among the other varieties of L. Longiflorum which we have grown there is one which, as far as we are aware, is unnamed. We bought ten bulbs of “Lilium Longiflorum, New Variety,” at an auction for half-a-crown. Most of the bulbs produced fair but ordinary results ”

“ But though such people made a good deal of noise with their opinions, after the fashion of excitable minorities, they were in numbers small. The mass of the people was in deadly earnest. The nation as a whole was ready to fight Buonaparte to the last coin in its purse, the last warm drop of blood in its body. ”

“ The stem grows to about three or four feet high, and bears at its summit from two to six flowers somewhat like those of L. Giganteum, but smaller, poorer, and marked on the inside with brown rather than claret-colour. The flowers open wider than do those of L. Giganteum, and are incomparably less beautiful. This lily is a native of Japan and China.
It is decidedly a scarce lily, and is exceedingly difficult to flower. We have not succeeded in flowering it ourselves, but a solitary bulb that we possess sent up last summer a fair crop of its curious leaves. ”

“ It is said that this lily should be grown in a black heavy loam and should be watered but sparingly; but we have not grown the plant ourselves, and so we cannot say if this treatment is likely to be successful.
The price of the bulbs of the last four lilies is very variable. All are rather difficult to obtain and are very rarely to be met with in good condition. If you can, you should get bulbs of established plants, for those imported are often ruined by their journey from the tropics. ”