Non-Fiction > Books > London, 1881 - Virginibus Puerisque, and other papers

Ordered South. 141
shock of wonder and delight with which he will
learn that he has passed the indefinable line
that separates South from North. And this is
an uncertain moment ; for sometimes the con-
sciousness is forced upon him early, on the
occasion of some slight association, a colour, a
flower, or a scent ; and sometimes not until, one
fine morning, he wakes up with the southern
sunshine peeping through the persiennes, and the
southern patois confusedly audible below the
windows. Whether it come early or late, how-
ever, this pleasure will not end with the
anticipation, as do so many others of the same
family. It will leave him wider awake than it
found him, and give a new significance to all he
may see for many days to come. There is
something in the mere name of the South that
carries enthusiasm along with it. At the sound
of the word, he pricks up his ears ; he becomes
as anxious to seek out beauties and to get by
heart the permanent lines and character of the