ately young lady, a foreigner
as he judged from her strong accent when she addressed the porter.
With the innate gallantry of twenty-one, he immediately laid himself
out to make the acquaintance of one possessed of such proud, yet
melting blue eyes, such lovely hair, and a figure that would not have
disgraced Diana; and, with this view, set himself to render her such
little services as one fellow-traveller can offer to another. They
were accepted reservedly at first, then gratefully, and before long
the reserve broke down entirely, and this very handsome pair dropped
into a conversation as animated as the lady's broken English would
allow. The lady told him that her name was Hilda von Holtzhausen, that
she was of a German family, and had come to England to enter a family
as companion, in order to obtain a perfect knowledge of the English
language. She had already been to France and acquired French; when she
knew English, then she had been promised a place as school-mistress
under government in her own country. Her father and mother were dead,
and she had no brothers or sisters, and very few friends.

Where was she going to? She was going to a place called Roxham; here
it was written on the ticket. She was going to be companion to a dear
young lady, very rich, like all the English, whom she had met when she
had travelled with her French family to Jersey, a Miss Lee.

"You don't say so!" said Philip. "Has she come back to Rewtham?"

"What, do you, then, know her?"

"Yes--that is, I used to three years ago. I live in the next parish."

"Ah! then perhaps you are the gentleman of whom I have heard her to
speak, Mr. Car-es-foot, whom she did seem to appear to love; is not
that the word?--to be very fond, you know."

Philip laughed, blushed, and acknowledged his identity with the
gentleman whom Miss Lee "did seem to appear to love."

"Oh! I am glad; then we shall be friends, and see each other often--
shall we not?"

He declared unreservedly that she should see him very often.

From Fraulein von Holtzhausen Philip gathered in the course of their
journey a good many particulars about Miss Lee. It appeared that,
having attained her majority, she was coming back to live at her old
home at Rewtham, whither she had tried to persuade her Aunt Chambers
to accompany her, but without success, that lady being too much
attached to Jersey to leave it. During the course of a long stay on
the island, the two girls had become fast