society which extends to no other human being. Happy love or lost love,
a full world or an empty world, life with joy or life without it--that is
all the difference. Which some people think very small, and that does
not matter; and perhaps it does not--to many people. But it does to
some, and I incline to put in that category Miss Williams and Mr. Roy.

They stood by the laurel bush, having just shaken hands more hastily than
they usually did; but the absence of the children, and the very unusual
fact of their being quite alone, gave to both a certain shyness, and she
had drawn her hand away, saying, with a slight blush:

"Mrs. Dalziel desired me to meet you and tell you that you might have a
holiday today. She has taken her boys with her to Elie. I dare say you
will not be sorry to gain an hour or two for yourself; though I am sorry
you should have the trouble of the walk for nothing."

"For nothing?"--with the least shadow of a smile, not of annoyance,
certainly.

"Indeed, I would have let you know if I could, but she decided at the
very last minute; and if I had proposed that a messenger should have been
sent to stop you, I am afraid--it would not have been answered."

"Of course not;" and they interchanged an amused look--these
fellow-victims to the well-known ways of the household--which, however,
neither grumbled at; it was merely an outside thing, this treatment of
both as mere tutor and governess. After all (as he sometimes said, when
some special rudeness--not himself, but to her--vexed him), they were
tutor and governess; but they were something else besides; something
which, the instant their chains were lifted off, made them feel free and