rsation together
seem as under her conduct; and she took a slide on some French phrases
with little Emile. Her young ladies looked shrinking and envious to see
the fellows wet to the skin, laughing, wrestling, linking arms; and some,
who were clown-faced with a wipe of scarlet, getting friends to rub their
cheeks with snow, all of them happy as larks in air, a big tea steaming
for them at the school. Those girls had a leap and a fail of the heart,
glad to hug themselves in their dry clothes, and not so warm as the
dripping boys were, nor so madly fond of their dress-circle seats to look
on at a play they were not allowed even to desire to share. They looked
on at blows given and taken in good temper, hardship sharpening jollity.
The thought of the difference between themselves and the boys must have
been something like the tight band--call it corset--over the chest,
trying to lift and stretch for draughts of air. But Browny's feeling
naturally was, that all this advantage for the boys came of Matey
Weyburn's lead.

Miss Vincent with her young ladies walked off in couples, orderly chicks,
the usual Sunday march of their every day. The school was coolish to
them; one of the fellows hummed bars of some hymn tune, rather faster
than church. And next day there was a murmur of letters passing between
Matey and Browny regularly, little Collett for postman. Anybody might
have guessed it, but the report spread a feeling that girls are not the
entirely artificial beings or flat targets we suppose. The school began
to brood, like air deadening on oven-heat. Winter is hen-mother to the
idea of love in schools, if the idea has fairly entered. Various girls of
different colours were selected by boys for animated correspondence, that
never existed and was vigorously prosecuted, with efforts to repress
contempt of them in courtship for their affections. They found their part
of it by no means difficult when they imagined the lines without the
words, or, better still, the letter without the lines. A holy
satisfaction belonged to the sealed thing; the breaking of the seal and
inspection of the contents imposed perplexity on that sentiment. They
thought of certain possible sentences Matey and Browny would exchange;
but the plain, conceivable, almost visible, outside of the letter had a
stronger spell for them than the visionary inside. This fancied
contemplation of the love-letter was reversed in them at once by the
startling news of Miss