IV INTRODUCTION

this tendency. She would sometimes fall into a long revery, and be so lost to everything going on around her, that strangers often thought her stupid. Even her family were sometimes uneasy at this appearance of dulness, but her mother would say, "Do not be disturbed, it is not stupidity ; she is ruminating."

Her little head was full of impressions that she wove into endless stories. Thèse she acted ont with her sister and Ursula, a child brought to Nohant to be a companion for her, and remaining always her faithful friend.

Aurora^s mother, a woman full of poetic imagination, though untutored, had fiUed her mind with a strange medley of mythology and religion.

After Maurice Dupin's death, his widow remained for two or three years at Nohant, the family estate in Berry, with his mother. At the end of that time, the mother, by written agreement, gave the little Aurora up to her grandmother, who was to hâve full charge of her éducation.

The séparation was made as easy as possible for the child ; in the winter her grandmother took her to a pretty apartment in Paris, overlooking bright gardens, and not far from her mother's home ; in summer her mother made long visits at Nohant.

Hère Aurora was forced to attend with some regularity to lessons with her grandmother or ner old tutor Deschartres. Outside of the time devoted to study, she delighted in entering into the life of the little peasants in the neighborhood.

Their legends and stories of the supernatural especially charmed her. This love of the country and interest in the country people, supplied the material for many of her best novels.

Her grandmother was a woman of fine intellect and warm heart, and excited the little girFs imagination by the story of her own varied life.