sing,' he said in a low voice,
'especially when he is a daily and hourly reproach to one. Oh, you know
what I mean,' throwing back his head with a quick, nervous gesture. 'My
mother says she has told you. I saw you looking at Kester this
afternoon, but you are aware it was all my fault.'

'But it was only an accident,' she returned gently. 'I hope that you are
not morbid on the subject, Mr. Blake. Boys are terribly venturesome. I
wonder more of them are not hurt. I am quite sure Kester does not blame
you.'

'No, you are right there; but somehow it is difficult for me to forget
that my unlucky slip has spoiled the poor fellow's life. He is very good
and patient, and we do all we can for him; but one dare not glance at
the future. Excuse my bothering you with such a personal matter, but I
cannot forget the way you looked at Kester; and then my mother said she
had told you the whole story.'

'I was very much interested,' she began, but just then Mr. Harcourt
interrupted them by a remark pointedly addressed to Mr. Blake, so that
he was obliged to break off his conversation with Audrey. This time the
ladies were decidedly bored--none of them could follow the discussion;
the conversation at Woodcote was rarely pedantic, but this evening Mr.
Harcourt chose to argue a purely scholastic question--some translation
from the Greek, which he declared to be full of gross errors.

Audrey felt convinced that the subject had been chosen with the express
purpose of crushing the new master; on this topic Michael would be
unable to afford him the slightest help. True, he had been studying
Greek for his own pleasure the last two years at her father's
suggestion, and had made very fair progress, but only a finished scholar
could have pronounced with any degree of certainty on such a knotty
point.

She was, therefore, all the more surprised and pleased when she found
that Mr. Blake proved himself equal to the occasion. He had kept
modestly in the background while the elder men were speaking, but when
Mr. Harcourt appealed to him he took his part in the conversation quite
readily, and expressed himself with the greatest ease and fluency;
indeed, he not only ventured to contradict Mr. Harcourt, but he brought
quite a respectable array of authorities to back his opinions.

Audrey felt so interested in watching the changes of expression on her
brother-in-law's face that she was quite reconciled to the insuperable
difficulties that such a t