that I am to stop now just as I have begun to learn?"

"My dear, you have learnt everything that I can teach you, and,
besides, I am going away the day after to-morrow."

"Going away!" and then and there, without the slightest warning,
Angela--who, for all her beauty and learning, very much resembled the
rest of her sex--burst into tears.

"Come, come, Angela," said Mr. Fraser, in a voice meant to be gruff,
but only succeeding in being husky, for, oddly enough, it is trying
even to a clergyman on the wrong side of middle-age to be wept over by
a lovely woman; "don't be nonsensical; I am only going for a few
months."

At this intelligence she pulled up a little.

"Oh," she said, between her sobs, "how you frightened me! How could
you be so cruel! Where are you going to?"

"I am going for a long trip in southern Europe. Do you know that I
have scarcely been away from this place for twenty years, so I mean to
celebrate the conclusion of our studies by taking a holiday."

"I wish you would take me with you."

Mr. Fraser coloured slightly, and his eye brightened. He sighed as he
answered--

"I am afraid, my dear, that it would be impossible."