them. Tudor accordingly went there, and it soon came to pass that
he also very frequently spent his Sundays at Hampton.

It must be remembered that at this time, the time, that is, of
Norman and Tudor's first entrance on their London life, the girls
at Surbiton Cottage were mere girls--that is, little more than
children; they had not, as it were, got their wings so as to be
able to fly away when the provocation to do so might come; they
were, in short, Gertrude and Linda Woodward, and not the Miss
Woodwards: their drawers came down below their frocks, instead of
their frocks below their drawers; and in lieu of studying the
French language, as is done by grown-up ladies, they did French
lessons, as is the case with ladies who are not grown-up. Under
these circumstances there was no embarrassment as to what the
young people should call each other, and they soon became very
intimate as Harry and Alaric, Gertrude and Linda.

It is not, however, to be conceived that Alaric Tudor at once
took the same footing in the house as Norman. This was far from
being the case. In the first place he never slept there, seeing
that there was no bed for him; and the most confidential
intercourse in the household took place as they sat cosy over the
last embers of the drawing-room fire, chatting about everything
and nothing, as girls always can do, after Tudor had gone away to
his bed at the inn, on the opposite side of the way. And then
Tudor did not come on every Saturday, and at first did not do so
without express invitation; and although the girls soon
habituated themselves to the familiarity of their new friend's
Christian name, it was some time before Mrs. Woodward did so.