It is of course possible that she may have imitated her elder sister;
but she continued it after her sister had lost the habit.
She at first resembled her Parisian grandfather in a less degree
than did her sister at the same age, but now in a greater degree.
She likewise practises to the present time the peculiar habit of
rubbing together, when impatient, her thumb and two of her fore-fingers.
In this latter case we have a good instance, like those given
in a former chapter, of the inheritance of a trick or gesture;
for no one, I presume, will attribute to mere coincidence
so peculiar a habit as this, which was common to the grandfather
and his two grandchildren who had never seen him.
Considering all the circumstances with reference to these children
shrugging their shoulders, it can hardly be doubted that they
have inherited the habit from their French progenitors,
although they have only one quarter French blood in their veins,
and although their grandfather did not often shrug his shoulders.
There is nothing very unusual, though the fact is interesting,
in these children having gained by inheritance a habit during
early youth, and then discontinuing it; for it is of frequent
occurrence with many kinds of animals that certain characters
are retained for a period by the young, and are then lost.
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