As motto for this story Crabbe quotes the fine speech of Henry V. on discovering the treachery of Lord Scrope, whose character had hitherto seemed so immaculate.  The comparison thus suggested is not as felicitous as in many of Crabbe’s citations.  Had In Memoriam been then written, a more exact parallel might have been found in Tennyson’s warning to the young enthusiast: 

  “See thou, that countest reason ripe
    In holding by the law within,
    Thou fail not in a world of sin,
  And ev’n for want of such a type.”

The story is for the most part admirably told.  The unhappy man, reduced to idiocy of a harmless kind, and the common playmate of the village children, is encountered now and then by the once loved maid, who might have made him happy: 

  “Kindly she chides his boyish flights, while he
  Will for a moment fix’d and pensive be;
  And as she trembling speaks, his lively eyes
  Explore her looks; he listens to her sighs;
  Charm’d by her voice, th’ harmonious sounds invade
  His clouded mind, and for a time persuade: 
  Like a pleased infant, who has newly caught
  From the maternal glance a gleam of thought,
  He stands enrapt, the half-known voice to hear,
  And starts, half conscious, at the falling tear.

  Rarely from town, nor then unwatch’d, he goes,
  In darker mood, as if to hide his woes;
  Returning soon, he with impatience seeks
  His youthful friends, and shouts, and sings, and speaks;
  Speaks a wild speech with action all as wild—­
  The children’s leader, and himself a child;
  He spins their top, or at their bidding bends
  His back, while o’er it leap his laughing friends;
  Simple and weak, he acts the boy once more,
  And heedless children call him Silly Shore.”

In striking contrast to the prevailing tone of the other Tales is the charming story, conceived in a vein of purest comedy, called The Frank Courtship.  This Tale alone should be a decisive answer to those who have doubted Crabbe’s possession of the gift of humour, and on this occasion he has refrained from letting one dark shadow fall across his picture.  It tells of one Jonas Kindred, a wealthy puritanic Dissenter of narrowest creed and masterful temper.  He has an only daughter, the pride of her parents, and brought up by them in the strictest tenets of the sect.  Her father has a widowed and childless sister, with a comfortable fortune, living in some distant town; and in pity of her solitary condition he allows his naturally vivacious daughter to spend the greater part of the year with her aunt.  The aunt does not share the prejudices of her brother’s household.  She likes her game of cards and other social joys, and is quite a leader of fashion in her little town.  To this life and its enjoyments the beautiful and clever Sybil takes very kindly, and unfolds many attractive graces.  Once a year the aunt and niece by arrangement