alternately with shade and starlight; the moon yet more slowly rising
above the willows, and lengthening its track along the wavelets.



CHAPTER III.

THOUGH Kenelm did not think it necessary at present to report to his
parents or his London acquaintances his recent movements and his
present resting-place, it never entered into his head to lurk /perdu/
in the immediate vicinity of Lily's house, and seek opportunities of
meeting her clandestinely. He walked to Mrs. Braefield's the next
morning, found her at home, and said in rather a more off-hand manner
than was habitual to him, "I have hired a lodging in your
neighbourhood, on the banks of the brook, for the sake of its
trout-fishing. So you will allow me to call on you sometimes, and one
of these days I hope you will give me the dinner I so unceremoniously
rejected some days ago. I was then summoned away suddenly, much
against my will."

"Yes; my husband said that you shot off from him with a wild
exclamation about duty."

"Quite true; my reason, and I may say my conscience, were greatly
perplexed upon a matter extremely important and altogether new to me.
I went to Oxford,--the place above all others in which questions of
reason and conscience are most deeply considered, and perhaps least
satisfactorily solved. Relieved in my mind by my visit to a
distinguished ornament of that university, I felt I might indulge in a
summer holiday, and here I am."