"Why don't you keep a school, Mr. Knight? There's lots of room for it
in the Abbey."

"A school!" he said. "A school! I never thought of that. No, it is
ridiculous. Still, pupils perhaps. Out of the mouth of babes and
sucklings, &c. Well, it is time for me to be going. I will think the
matter over after church."

Mr. Knight did think the matter over and after consultation with his
housekeeper, Mrs. Parsons, an advertisement appeared in /The Times/
and /The Spectator/ inviting parents and guardians to entrust two or
three lads to the advertiser's care to receive preliminary education,
together with his own son. It proved fruitful, and after an exchange
of the "highest references," two little boys appeared at Monk's Acre,
both of them rather delicate in health. This was shortly before the
crisis arose as to the future teaching of Isobel, when the last
governess, wishing her "a better spirit," had bidden her a frigid
farewell and shaken the dust of Hawk's Hall off her feet.

One day Isobel was sent with a note to the Abbey House. She rang the
bell but no one came, for Mr. Knight was out walking with his pupils
and Mrs. Parsons and the parlour-maid were elsewhere. Tired of
waiting, she wandered round the grey old building in the hope of
finding someone to whom she could deliver the letter, and came to the
refectory which had a separate entrance. The door was open and she
peeped in. At first, after the brilliant sunlight without, she saw
nothing except the great emptiness of the place with its splendid oak
roof on the repair of which the late incumbent had spent so much,
since as is common in monkish buildings, the windows were high and
narrow. Presently, however, she perceived a little figure seated in