on that day when John first saw her;
and now as he spoke with her, her mouth smiled, as he had been sure it
would. John felt a curious sense of pride in her, in finding that he had
not been deceived, that this ideal of whom he had dreamed was really and
truly very good to look at. He knew little of the artist's rules of
beauty; he had often looked with wonder at the faces in the illustrations
to Dr. Smith's classical dictionary, and had tried to understand where
the beauty of them lay, and at Cambridge he had seen and studied with
interest many photographs and casts from the antiques. But to his mind
the antique would not bear comparison for a moment with Mrs. Goddard, who
resembled no engraving nor photograph nor cast he had ever seen.

And she, too, looked at him, and said to herself that he did not look
like what she had expected. He looked like a lean, fresh young Englishman
of moderate intelligence and in moderate circumstances. And yet she knew
that he was no ordinary young fellow, that he was wonderfully gifted, in
fact, and likely to make a mark in the world. She resolved to take a
proper interest in him.

"Do you know," she said, "I have heard so much about you, that I feel as
though I had met you before, Mr. Short."

"We really have met," said John. "Do you remember that hot day when you
came to the vicarage and I waked up Muggins for you?"

"Yes--was that you? You have changed. That is, I suppose I did not see
you very well in the hurry."

"I suppose I have changed in two years and a half. I was only a boy then,
you know. But how have you heard so much about me?"

"Billingsfield," said Mrs. Goddard with a faint smile, "is not a large
place. The Ambroses are very fond of you and always talk of what you are
doing."

"And so you really live here, Mrs. Goddard? How long is it since you
came? Mr. Ambrose never told me--"

"I have been here more than two years--two years last October," she
answered quietly.

"The very year I left--only a month after I was gone. How strange!"

Mrs. Goddard looked up nervously. She was frightened lest John should
have made any deductions from the date of her arrival. But John was
thinking in a very different train of thought.

"Why is it strange?" she asked.

"Oh, I hardly know," said John in considerable embarrassment. "I was only
thinking--about you--that is, about it all."

The answer did not tend to quiet Mrs. Goddard's apprehensions.

"About me?" she exclaimed.