of the tree, and under shelter of its mass of evergreen leaves.

This letter-box; made by the boys of the family at the instigation and
with the assistance of their tutor, had proved so attractive to some
exceedingly incautious sparrow that during the intervals of the post she
had begun a nest there, which was found by the boys. Exceedingly wild
boys they were, and a great trouble to their old grandmother, with whom
they were staying the summer, and their young governess--"Misfortune,"
as they called her, her real name being Miss Williams--Fortune Williams.
The nickname was a little too near the truth, as a keener observer than
mischievous boys would have read in her quiet, sometimes sad, face; and
it had been stopped rather severely by the tutor of the elder boys, a
young man whom the grandmother had been forced to get, to "keep them in
order!" He was a Mr. Robert Roy, once a student, now a teacher of the
"humanities," from the neighboring town--I beg its pardon--city; and a
lovely old city it is!--of St. Andrews. Thence he was in the habit of
coming to them three and often four days in the week, teaching of
mornings and walking of afternoons. They had expected him this
afternoon, but their grandmother had carried them off on some pleasure
excursion; and being a lady of inexact habits--one, too, to whom tutors
were tutors and nothing more--she had merely said to Miss Williams, as
the carriage drove away, "When Mr. Roy comes, tell him he is not wanted
till tomorrow."

And so Miss Williams had waited at the gate, not wishing him to have the
additional trouble of walking up to the house, for she knew every minute
of his time was precious. The poor and the hard-working can understand
and sympathize with one another. Only a tutor and only a governess: Mrs.
Dalziel drove away and never thought of them again. They were mere
machines--servants to whom she paid their wages, and so that they did