anything but Miss Hall, which the love of the impulsive pupil, so hard
to obtain, and so great when obtained, thought much too formal.

When Freda took Miss Hall to the delightful apartment she had been
adorning for her for a week past, the first impulse of the older lady
was to throw herself upon the neck of the younger, and burst into tears.

'Dearest Serena, I have been so very sorry for you,' was all that Freda
could say.

For a minute there was silence, when Miss Hall, recovering herself,
said,--

'Dear Freda, this is all so kind of you. If anything could console me
for the loss of my last earthly support, it is such affection as yours.'

We will pass over the long conversation of those two friends, its
melancholy and its mirth, for there was much of both, and bring them to
the dinner-table and Messrs Gwynne and Rowland Prothero.

They were rather a formal quartette, and at first conversation did not
flow easily. Mr Gwynne's nerves, Rowland's embarrassment Miss Hall's
natural depression of spirits, and Freda's resolution not to make
herself agreeable to a person she was determined to consider conceited,
were bad ingredients for a dish of good sociable converse. By degrees,
however, they thawed a little. Mr Gwynne wished to say something that
would set his young chess opponent at his ease, and said the very thing
likely the most to confuse a shy man. He made a personal remark and paid
a compliment.

'I am sure your uncle and--and your father, of course, must have been
much gratified, and so forth, at your gaining that fellowship at
Oxford.'

'I think you labour under a mistake,' said Rowland, looking more than
usually confused when he saw Miss Gwynne's eyes turned upon him; 'I
merely gained a scholarship at Rugby, which is really nothing. I did not
even try for a fellowship.'

'Conceited!' thought Freda. 'I suppose he thinks if he had tried he
would have got one.'

'Were you not at Baliol?' asked Mr Gwynne.

'Yes; I went there because my aunt had a fancy for the college, her
father having been, there, otherwise I should have gone to Jesus College
and tried for a Welsh fellowship, which is more easily obtained, because
there are few competitors.'

'Did you know anything of Mr Neville, Sir Thomas Neville's son?' asked
Miss Hall.

'Yes; I was introduced to him through some friends of my aunt's, and we
became very intimate. He was very kind to me.'

'Is he clever?'

'Very. I think he has very fine ta