tood me better when
he came to know Mr. Andrewes, and learned how much I had been with
him.
He had a very high respect for the Rector. The first walk we took
together was to call at the Rectory. We stayed luncheon, and Mr.
Andrewes had some conversation with the tutor which I did not hear. As
we came home, I was anxious to learn if Mr. Clerke did not think my
dear friend "very nice."
"Mr. Andrewes is a very remarkable man," said the tutor. And he
constantly repeated this. "He is a very remarkable man."
After a while Mr. Clerke ceased to be put out by my asking strange
unchildish questions which he was not always able to answer. He often
said, "We will ask Mr. Andrewes what he thinks;" and for my own part,
I respected him none the less that he often honestly confessed that he
could not, off-hand, solve all the problems that exercised my brain.
He was not a good general naturalist but he was fond of geology, and
was kind enough to take me out with him on "chipping" expeditions, and
to start me with a "collection" of fossils. I had already a collection
of flowers, a collection of shells, a collection of wafers, and a
collection of seals. (People did not collect monograms and old stamps
in my young days.) These collections were a sore vexation to Nurse
Bundle.
"Whatever a gentleman like the Rector is thinking of, for to encourage
you in such rubbish, my dear," said she, "it passes me! It's vexing
enough to see dirt and bits about that shouldn't be, when you can take
the dust-pan and clear 'em away. But to have dead leaves, and weeds,
and stones off the road brought in day after day, and not be allowed
so much as to touch them, and a young gentleman that has things worth
golden guineas to play with, storing up a lot of stuff you could pick
off any rubbish-heap in a field before it's burned--if it was anybody
but you, my dear, I couldn't abear it. And what's a tutor for, I
should like to know?"
(Mrs. Bundle, who at no time liked blaming her darling, had now
acquired a habit of laying the blame of any misdoings of mine on the
tutor, on the ground that he "ought to have seen to" my acting
differently.)
If Mr. Clerke discovered that he could confess to being puzzled by
some of my questions, without losing ground in his pupil's respect, I
soon found out that my grown-up tutor had not altogether outlived
boyish feelings. It dimly dawned on me that he liked a holiday quite
as well, if not better than myself; and as w
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