le--it was Jock.
Jock, it need scarcely be said, had no tendency at all to the society
of girls. Deep as he was in MTutor's confidence, captain of his house,
used to live in a little male community, and to despise (not unkindly)
the rest of the world, it is not likely that he would care much for the
antagonistic creatures who invariably interfered, he thought, with talk
and enjoyment wherever they appeared. Making an exception in favour of
Lucy and an older person now and then, who had been soothing to him when
he was ill or out of sorts, Jock held that the feminine part of the
creation was a mistake, and to be avoided in every practicable way. He
had been startled by the young stranger's advances to him on the first
evening, and her claim of fellowship on the score that he was young like
herself. But when Bice first appeared suddenly in his way, far down in
the depths of the winterly park, the boy's impulse would have been, had
that been practicable, to turn and flee. She was skimming along, singing
to herself, leaping lightly over fallen branches and the inequalities of
the humid way, when he first perceived her; and Jock had a moment's
controversy with himself as to what he ought to do. If he took to flight
across the open park she would see him and understand the reason
why--besides, it would be cowardly to fly from a girl, an inferior
creature, who probably had lost her way, and would not know how to get
back again. This reflection made him withdraw a little deeper into the
covert, with the intention of keeping her in sight lest she should
wander astray altogether, but yet keeping out of the way, that he might
exercise this secret protecting charge of his, which Jock felt was his
natural attitude even to a girl without the embarrassment of her
society. He tried to persuade himself that she was a lower boy, of an
inferior kind no doubt, but yet possessing claims upon his care; for
MTutor had a great idea of influence, and had imprinted deeply upon the
minds of his leading pupils the importance of exercising it in the most
beneficial way for those who were under them.

Jock accordingly stayed among the brushwood watching where she went. How
light she was! her feet scarcely made a dint upon the wet and spongy
grass, in which his own had sunk. She went over everything like a bird.
Now and then she would stop to gather a handful of brown rustling
brambles, and the stiff yellow oak leaves, and here and there a rusty
boug