down the lane to meet him. She met him immediately upon turning a
sharp angle, which hid her from view in the direction of the
vicarage. The man smilingly handed one missive, and was going on
to hand another, a circular from some tradesman.

'No,' she said; 'take that on to the house.'

'Why, miss, you are doing what your father has done for the last
fortnight.'

She did not comprehend.

'Why, come to this corner, and take a letter of me every morning,
all writ in the same handwriting, and letting any others for him
go on to the house.' And on the postman went.

No sooner had he turned the corner behind her back than she heard
her father meet and address the man. She had saved her letter by
two minutes. Her father audibly went through precisely the same
performance as she had just been guilty of herself.

This stealthy conduct of his was, to say the least, peculiar.


Given an impulsive inconsequent girl, neglected as to her inner
life by her only parent, and the following forces alive within
her; to determine a resultant:

First love acted upon by a deadly fear of separation from its
object: inexperience, guiding onward a frantic wish to prevent the