een enjoyment from
the fact that it was so transient a blossoming; a fact which the child
knew and never for a moment forgot. The thought was always with her,
making only more tender and keen the taste of every day's delights. And
Pitt made the days full. With a mixture of motives, perhaps, which his
own mind did not analyze, he devoted himself very much to the lonely
little girl. She went with him in his walks and in his drives; he sat
on the verandah with her daily and gave her lessons, and almost daily
he went in to tea with her afterwards, and said that Christopher grew
the biggest raspberries in 'town.' Pitt professed himself very fond of
raspberries. And then would come one of those rich talks between him
and the colonel; and when Pitt went home afterwards he would reflect
with satisfaction that he had given Esther another happy day. It was
true; and he never guessed what heart-aches the little girl went
through, night after night, in anticipation of the days that were
coming. She did not shed tears about it, usually; tears might have been
more wholesome. Instead, Esther would stand at her window looking out
into the moonlit garden, or sit on the edge of her bed staring down at
the floor; with a dry ache at her heart, such as we are wont to say a
young thing like her should not know. And indeed only one here and
there has a nature deep and fine-strung enough to be susceptible of it.

The intensification of this pain was the approaching certainty that
Pitt was going to England. Esther did not talk of it, rarely asked a
question; nevertheless she heard enough now and then to make her sure
what was corning. And, in fact, if anything had been wanting to sharpen
up Mrs. Dallas's conviction that such a step was necessary, it would
have been the experience of this summer. She wrought upon her husband,
till himself began to prick up his ears and open his eyes; and between
them they agreed that Pitt had better go. Some evils are easier nipped
in the bud; and this surely was one, for Pitt was known to be a
persistent fellow, if once he took a thing in his head. And though Mr.
Dallas laughed, at the same time he trembled. It was resolved that Pitt
should make his next term at Oxford. The thought was not for a moment
to be entertained, that all Mr. Dallas's money, and all the pretensions
properly growing out of it, should be wasted on the quite penniless
daughter of a retired army officer. For in this world the singular rule