All the riches and honors which this world can afford, would not have added to her existence a tithe of that pleasure which Valentine easily conferred on her, by teaching her to draw; he might almost be said to have given her a new sense in exchange for the senses that she had lost.

She used to dance about the room with the reckless ecstasy of a child, in her ungovernable delight at the prospect of a sketching expedition with Mr.Blyth in the Hampstead fields.
At a very early date of her sojourn with Valentine, it was discovered that her total deafness did not entirely exclude her from every effect of sound.

She was acutely sensitive to the influence of percussion--that is to say (if so vague and contradictory an expression may be allowed), she could, under certain conditions, _feel_ the sounds that she could not hear.

For example, if Mr.Blyth wished to bring her to his side when they were together in the painting-room, and when she happened neither to be looking at him nor to be within reach of a touch he used to rub his foot, or the end of his mahl-stick gently against the floor.

The slight concussion so produced, reached her nerves instantly; provided always that some part of her body touched the floor on which such experiments were tried.
As a means of extending her facilities of social communication, she was instructed in the deaf and dumb alphabet by Valentine's direction; he and his wife, of course, learning it also; and many of their intimate friends, who were often in the house, following their example for Madonna's sake.