moving ever since I came here. I have been here for twenty-four
hours, and yet it seems all old and dear to me."

"I know that feeling," said the girl, "one dips into something that
has been going on for ever and ever--I feel like that to-night. It
seems odd to talk like this, but you must remember that Jack tells
me most things, and I seem to know you quite well. I knew it would
be all easy somehow."

"Well, we are a sort of cousins," said Howard lightly. "That's such
a comfort; it needn't entail anything, but it can save one all
sorts of fencing and ceremony. I want to talk to you about Jack. He
is a little mysterious to me still."

"Yes," she said, "he is mysterious, but he really is a dear: he was
the most aggravating boy that ever lived, and I sometimes used
really to hate him. I am afraid we used to fight a great deal; at
least I did, but I suppose he was only pretending, for he never
hurt me, and I know I used to hurt him--but then he deserved it!"

"What a picture!" said Howard, smiling; "no wonder that boys go to
their private schools expecting to have to fight for their lives. I
never had a sister; and that accounts perhaps for my peaceful
disposition." He had a sudden sense as he spoke that he was talking
as if to an undergraduate in friendly irony. To his surprise and
pleasure he saw that his thought had translated itself.

"I suppose that is how you talk to your pupils," said the girl,
smiling; "I recognise that--and that's what makes it easy to talk
to you as Jack does--it's like an easy serve at lawn-tennis."