of a tutor, the young man undertaking to lend
himself with the utmost diligence to the tutor's instructions, till he
became polished outwardly and inwardly to the degree required in the
husband of such a lady as Barbara. He was to apply himself to the study
of languages, manners, history, society, ruins, and everything else that
came under his eyes, till he should return to take his place without
blushing by Barbara's side.

'And by that time,' said worthy Sir John, 'I'll get my little place out
at Yewsholt ready for you and Barbara to occupy on your return. The
house is small and out of the way; but it will do for a young couple for
a while.'

'If 'twere no bigger than a summer-house it would do!' says Barbara.

'If 'twere no bigger than a sedan-chair!' says Willowes. 'And the more
lonely the better.'

'We can put up with the loneliness,' said Barbara, with less zest. 'Some
friends will come, no doubt.'

All this being laid down, a travelled tutor was called in--a man of many
gifts and great experience,--and on a fine morning away tutor and pupil
went. A great reason urged against Barbara accompanying her youthful
husband was that his attentions to her would naturally be such as to
prevent his zealously applying every hour of his time to learning and
seeing--an argument of wise prescience, and unanswerable. Regular days
for letter-writing were fixed, Barbara and her Edmond exchanged their
last kisses at the door, and the chaise swept under the archway into the
drive.

He wrote to her from Le Havre, as soon as he reached that port, which was
not for seven days, on account of adverse winds; he wrote from Rouen, and
from Paris; described to her his sight of the King and Court at
Versailles, and the wonderful marble-work and mirrors in that palace;
wrote next from Lyons; then, after a comparatively long interval, from
Turin, narrating his fearful adventures in crossing Mont Cenis on mules,
and how he was overtaken with a terrific snowstorm, which had well-nigh
been the end of him, and his tutor, and his guides. Then he wrote
glowingly of Italy; and Barbara could see the development of her
husband's mind reflected in his letters month by month; and she much
admired the forethought of her father in suggesting this education for
Edmond. Yet she sighed sometimes--her husband being no longer in
evidence to fortify her in her choice of him--and timidly dreaded what
mortifications might be in store for her by reaso