Unknown Artist Ford Smith Just Between Us painting

Unknown Artist Ford Smith Just Between Us paintingUnknown Artist Apple Tree with Red Fruit paintingGeorge Frederick Watts Orpheus and Eurydice painting
father of two other secretaries of mine. Narcissus and Polybius. I also spent much of my time with my mother's women, listening to their tails; as they sat spinning or carding or weaving. Many of them, such as my governess, were women of liberal education and, I confess, I found more pleasure in their society than in that of almost any society of men in which I have since been placed: they were broadminded, shrewd, modest, and kindly.
My tutor I have already mentioned, Marcus Porcius Cato who was, in his own estimation at least, a living embodiment of that ancient Roman virtue which his ancestors had one after the other shown. He was always boasting of his ancestors, as stupid people do who are aware that they have done nothing themselves to bo