of the Universities. She
and the Archdeacon conceived that the Oxford authorities were mainly
occupied in ruining the young men's health by over-examination, and
poisoning their minds by free-thinking opinions. In her belief, if it
went on, the motherly of England would refuse to send their sons to
these ancient but deadly resorts. She looked at him sternly as she
spoke, as though defying him to be flippant in return. And he, indeed,
did his polite best to be serious.

But it somewhat disconcerted him in the middle to find Miss Leyburn's
eyes upon him. And undeniably there was spark of laughter in them,
quenched, as soon as his glance crossed hers, under long lashes. How
that spark had lit up the grave, pale face! He longed to provoke it
again, to cross over to her and say, 'What amused you? Do you think me
very young and simple? Tell me about these people.'

But, instead, ho made friends with Rose. Mrs. Seaton was soon engaged
in giving the vicar advice on his parochial affairs, an experience which
generally, ended by the appearance of certain truculent elements in one
of the mildest of men. So Robert was free to turn to his girl neighbor
and ask her what people meant by calling the Lakes rainy.

'I understand it is pouring at Oxford. To-day your sky has been without
a cloud, and your rivers are running dry.'

'And you have mastered our climate in twenty-four hours, like the
tourists--isn't it?--that do the Irish question in three weeks?'

'Not the answer of a bread-and-butter miss,' he thought to himself,
amused, 'and yet what a child it looks.'

He threw himself into a war of words with her, and enjoyed it extremely.
Her brilliant coloring, her gestures as fresh and untamed as the
movements of the leaping river outside, the mixture in her of girlish
pertness and ignorance with the promise of a remarkable general
capacity, made her a most taking, provoking creature. Mrs.
Thornburgh--much recovered in mind since Dr. Baker had praised the
pancakes by which Sarah had sought to prove to her mistress the
superfluity of naughtiness involved in her recourse to foreign
cooks--watched the young man and maiden with a face which grew more and
more radiant. The conversation in the garden had not pleased her. Why
should people always talk of Catherine; Mrs. Thornburgh stood in awe of
Catherine and had given her up in despair. It was the other two whose
fortunes, as possibly directed by her, filled her maternal heart with
s