week before the session closes?" I asked, "Mrs.
Linwood does not wish to leave me behind, but I do not care much to go."

"Of course I will release you, my child, but it will seem as if the
flower season were past when you are gone. I wonder now, how I ever
taught without your assistance. I wonder what I shall do when you leave
me?"

"Mrs. Linwood wished me to say to you," said I, quite touched by his
kind, affectionate manner, "that she does not wish me to renew our
engagement. She will take me to town next winter, satisfied for the
present with the discipline I have experienced under your guardian
care."

"So soon!" he exclaimed, "I was not prepared for this."

"So soon, Mr. Regulus? I have been with you one long year."

"It may have seemed long to you, but it has been short as a dream to me.
A very pleasant time has it been, too pleasant to last."

He took up his dark, formidable ferula, and leaned his forehead
thoughtfully upon it.

"And it has been pleasant to me, Mr. Regulus. I dreaded it very much at
first, but every step I have taken in the path of instruction has been
made smooth and green beneath my feet. No dull, lagging hour has dragged
me backward in my daily duties. The dear children have been good and
affectionate, and you, my dear master, have crowned me with loving
kindness from day to day. How shall I convince you of my gratitude, and
what return can I make for your even parental care?"

I spoke earnestly, for my heart was in my words. His unvarying
gentleness and tenderness to me, (since that one fiery shower that
converted for a time the Castalian fountain into a Dead Sea,) had won my
sincere and deep regard. He had seemed lately rather more reserved than
usual, and I valued still more his undisguised expressions of interest
and affection.

"You owe me nothing," said he, and I could not help noticing an unwonted
trepidation in his manner, and on one sallow cheek a deep flush was
spreading. "Long years of kindness, tenfold to mine, could not atone for
the harshness and injustice of which I was once guilty. You will go into
the world and blush like Waller's rose, to be so admired. You will be
surrounded by new friends, new lovers, and look back to these walls as
to a prison-house, and to me, as the grim jailer of your youth."

"No indeed, Mr. Regulus; you wrong yourself and me. Memory will hang
many a sweet garland on these classic walls, and will turn gratefully to
you, as the benefactor o