CHAPTER VIII.
GARTHOWEN SLOPES Dr.Jones's visits to Nantmyny were very frequent during the following week, for Gwenda's foot had been rather severely crushed, and the pain was acute; but being a girl of great spirit she bore it patiently, though it entailed many long hours of wearisome confinement to the house and sofa.

During these hours of enforced idleness, she indulged in frequent "brown studies," for her firm and decided character was curiously tinged with romance.

She had received but a desultory education; her uncle, though providing her amply with all the means of learning, yet chafed continually against the application which was necessary for her profiting by them.
"Come out, child," he would call, standing outside the open window, his jovial face broadening into a smile of blandishment, most aggravating to Miss Howells, who, inside the window, was trying to fix her pupil's attention upon some subject of history or grammar.

The rustling of the brown leaves and the whispering of the wind in the trees added their own enticements, which required all Gwenda's firmness to resist.
"No, uncle," she would say, shaking her finger at him.

"Yesterday and Monday you made me neglect my studies.