the lid: 'Missel-thrush from Lucy's tree--second
family, only one blown.'" He smoked fiercely, with puffs that were like
sharp sighs.

"Dalton was wrapped up in her. He was never tired of talking to me about
her, and I was never tired of hearing. We had a number of pupils; but in
the evening when we sat there, smoking--our talk would sooner or
later--come round to her. Her bedroom opened out of that sitting--room;
he took me in once and showed me a narrow little room the width of a
passage, fresh and white, with a photograph of her mother above the bed,
and an empty basket for a dog or cat." He broke off with a vexed air,
and resumed sternly, as if trying to bind himself to the narration of his
more important facts: "She was then fifteen--her mother had been dead
twelve years--a beautiful, face, her mother's; it had been her death that
sent Dalton to fight with us. Well, sir, one day in August, very hot
weather, he proposed a run into the country, and who should meet us on
the platform when we arrived but Eilie, in a blue sun-bonnet and
frock-flax blue, her favourite colour. I was angry with Dalton for not
telling me that we should see her; my clothes were not quite--my hair
wanted cutting. It was black then, sir," he added, tracing a pattern in
the darkness with his stick. "She had a little donkey-cart; she drove,
and, while we walked one on each side, she kept looking at me from under
her sunbonnet. I must tell you that she never laughed--her eyes danced,
her cheeks would go pink, and her hair shake about on her neck, but she
never laughed. Her old nurse, Lucy, a very broad, good woman, had married
the proprietor of the inn in the village there. I have never seen
anything like that inn: sweethriar up to the roof! And the scent--I am
very susceptible to scents!" His head drooped, and the cigarette fell
from his hand. A train passing beneath sent up a shower of sparks. He
started, and went on: "We had our lunch in the parlour--I remember that
room very well, for I spent the happiest days of my life afterwards in
that inn.... We went into a meadow after lunch, and my friend Dalton
fell asleep. A wonderful thing happened then. Eilie whispered to me,
'Let's have a jolly time.' She took me for the most glorious walk. The
river was close by. A lovely stream, your river Thames, so calm and
broad; it is like the spirit of your people. I was bewitched; I forgot
my friend, I thought of nothing but how to keep he