ng
over the desk, and saying severely, "My mail, if you please," and
Clementina could not wait for him to come back; she had to go to Mrs.
Lander, and get her ready for breakfast; Ellida had taught Mrs. Lander a
luxury of helplessness in which she persisted after the maid's help was
withdrawn.

Clementina went about the whole day with the wonder what Gregory had
said about Middlemount filling her mind. It must have had something to
do with her; he could not have forgotten the words he had asked her to
forget. She remembered them now with a curiosity, which had no rancor in
it, to know why he really took them back. She had never blamed him, and
she had outlived the hurt she had felt at not hearing from him. But she
had never lost the hope of hearing from him, or rather the expectation,
and now she found that she was eager for his message; she decided that
it must be something like a message, although it could not be anything
direct. No one else had come to his place in her fancy, and she was
willing to try what they would think of each other now, to measure her
own obligation to the past by a knowledge of his. There was scarcely
more than this in her heart when she allowed herself to drift near
Fane's place that night, that he might speak to her, and tell her what
Gregory had said. But he had apparently forgotten about his letter, and
only wished to talk about himself. He wished to analyze himself, to tell
her what sort of person he was. He dealt impartially with the subject;
he did not spare some faults of his; and after a week, he proposed a
correspondence with her, in a letter of carefully studied spelling, as a
means of mutual improvement as well as further acquaintance.

It cost Clementina a good deal of trouble to answer him as she wished
and not hurt his feelings. She declined in terms she thought so cold
that they must offend him beyond the point of speaking to her again; but
he sought her out, as soon after as he could, and thanked her for her
kindness, and begged her pardon. He said he knew that she was a very
busy person, with all the lessons she was taking, and that she had no
time for carrying on a correspondence. He regretted that he could not
write French, because then the correspondence would have been good
practice for her. Clementina had begun taking French lessons, of a
teacher who came out from Boston. She lunched three times a week with
her and Mrs. Lander, and spoke the language with Clementina, wh