urteous. He seemed to understand all
that she had lost in her life, all its disappointments and sacrifices.

On hearing that Miss Du Prel was among the Professor's oldest friends,
Mrs. Fullerton became suddenly cordial to that lady, and could not show
her enough attention. The evenings were often spent in music, Temperley
being sometimes of the party. He was the only person not obviously among
the Professor's admirers.

"However cultivated or charming a person may be," Temperley said to
Hadria, "I never feel that I have found a kindred spirit, unless the
musical instinct is strong."

"Nor I."

"Professor Fortescue has just that one weak point."

"Oh, but he is musical, though his technical knowledge is small."

But Temperley smiled dubiously.

The Professor, freed from his customary hard work, was like a schoolboy.
His delight in the open air, in the freshness of the hills, in the
peace of the mellow autumn, was never-ending.

He loved to take a walk before breakfast, so as to enjoy the first
sweetness of the morning; to bathe in some clear pool of the river; to
come into healthy contact with Nature. Never was there a brighter or a
wholesomer spirit. Yet the more Hadria studied this clear, and vigorous,
and tender nature, the more she felt, in him, the absence of that
particular personal hold on life which so few human beings are without,
a grip usually so hard to loosen, that only the severest experience, and
the deepest sorrow have power to destroy it.

Hadria's letters to her sister, at this time, were full of enthusiasm.
"You cannot imagine what it is, or perhaps you _can_ imagine what it
is to have the society of three such people as I now see almost every day.

"You say I represent them as impossible angels, such as earth never
beheld, but you are wrong. I represent them as they are. I suppose the
Professor has faults--though he does not show them to us--they must be
of the generous kind, at any rate. Father says that he never could keep
a farthing; he would always give it away to undeserving people. Miss Du
Prel, I find on closer acquaintance, is not without certain jealousies
and weaknesses, but these things just seem to float about as gossamer on
a mountain-side, and one counts them in relation to herself, in about
the same proportion. Mr. Temperley--I don't know quite what to say about
him. He is a tiny bit too precise and finished perhaps--a little wanting
in _elan_--but he seems very enlightened a