sprung up an unexpected friendship, born of mutual admiration and
confidence. Since then he had once repeated the visit, and to-night, to
my great satisfaction, proposed to go again.

To me it was a miniature triumph to carry off the hero of Sharpe's from
under the eyes of his house, and on an occasion like the present, to a
destination of which he and I alone knew the secret.

I flattered myself that, in spite of their mocking comments, the
Philosophers were bursting with envy. It is always a rare luxury to be
envied by a Philosopher; and I think I duly appreciated my blessings,
and showed it in the swagger with which I marched my man under the
faggery window.

Tempest was depressingly gloomy as we walked along, and my gentle
reminder that we could not take the short cut across the playing fields,
after the doctor's prohibition, but should have to walk round, did not
tend to cheer him up. I half feared he would propose to walk over, in
defiance of all consequences. Possibly, if he had been alone, he would
have done so, but on my account he made a grudging concession to law and
order.

At the Redwoods', however, he cheered up at once. He received a royal
welcome from the little girls--in marked contrast to Miss Mamie's sulky
reception of me as the destroyer of her nice sash. Redwood himself was
delighted to see him, and the family tea was quite a merry one.

When we adjourned to the captain's "den" afterwards I was decidedly out
of it. Indeed, it was broadly hinted to me that the little girls
downstairs were anxious for some one to teach them "consequences"; would
I mind?

Considering there was no game I detested more than "consequences," and
no young ladies less open to instruction than the Misses Redwood, I did
not jump at the offer. It was evident, however, Tempest and Redwood
wanted to talk, and with a vague sense that by leaving them to do so I
was somehow acting for the benefit of Low Heath, I sacrificed myself,
and sat down to assist in the usual composite stories; how, for
instance, the square Dr England met the mealy-faced Sarah (the little
girls knew my nickname as well as the Philosophers) up a tree. He said
to her, "We must part for ever;" she (that is I) said to him, "My ma
shall know of this;" the consequence was that there was a row, and the
world said, "It's all up."

In present circumstances these occult narratives were full of serious
meaning for me, and my thoughts were far more with