sympathetic habit of regarding their
neighbours' interests as very closely allied to their own. The constant
talk about John Short, the vicar's sanguine hopes for his brilliant
future, and Mrs. Ambrose's unlimited praise of his moral qualities,
repeated day by day and week by week produced a vivid impression on Mrs.
Goddard's mind. It would have surprised her and even amused her beyond
measure had she had any idea that she herself had for a long time
absorbed the interest of this same John Short, that he had written
hundreds of Greek and Latin verses in her praise, while wholly ignorant
of her name, and that at the very time when without knowing him, she was
constantly mentioning him as though she knew him intimately well, he
himself was looking back to the one glimpse he had had of her, as to a
dream of unspeakable bliss.

It never occurred to Mr. Ambrose's mind to tell John in the occasional
letters he wrote that Mrs. Goddard had settled in Billingsfield. John, he
thought, could take no possible interest in knowing about her, and
moreover, Mrs. Goddard herself was most anxious never to be mentioned
abroad. She had come to Billingsfield to live in complete obscurity, and
the good vicar had promised that as far as he and his wife were concerned
she should have her wish. To tell even John Short, his own beloved pupil,
would be to some extent a breach of faith, and there was assuredly no
earthly reason why John should be told. It might do harm, for of course
the young fellow had made acquaintances at Cambridge; he had probably
read about the Goddard case in the papers, and might talk about it. If he
should happen to come down for a day or two he would probably meet her;
but that could not be avoided. It was not likely that he would come for
some time. The vicar himself intended to go up to Cambridge for a day or
two after Christmas to see him; but the winter flew by and Mr. Ambrose
did not go. Then came Easter, then the summer and the Long vacation. John
wrote that he could not leave his books for a day, but that he hoped to
run down next Christmas. Again he did not come, but there came the news
of his having won another and a more important scholarship; the news also
that he was already regarded as the most promising man in the university,
all of which exceedingly delighted the heart of the Reverend Augustin
Ambrose, and being told with eulogistic comments to Mrs. Goddard, tended
to increase the interest she felt in the