r in his
old-fashioned reflectiveness, her pupil and her teacher, the little
judge of whose opinions she stood in awe, while at the same time quite
subject and submissive to her--that it was a pity it should ever come to
an end; but it is a pity, too, when children grow up, when they grow out
of all the softness and keen impressions of youth into the harder stuff
of man and woman. To their parents it is a change which has often
little to recommend it--but it is inevitable, as we all know; and so it
was a pity that Lucy and Jock were no longer all in all to each other;
but the change was in their case, too, inevitable, and accepted by both.
When, however, the time came that Jock was to arrive really on his first
long visit at the Hall, Lucy prepared for this event with a little
excitement, with a lighting up of her eyes and countenance, and a
pleasant warmth of anticipation in which even little Tom was for the
moment set aside. She asked her husband a dozen times in the previous
day if he thought the boy would be altered. "I know he must be taller
and all that," Lucy said. "I do not mean the outside of him. But do you
think he will be changed?"

"It is to be hoped so," said Sir Tom, serenely. "He is sixteen. I trust
he is not what he was at ten. That would be a sad business, indeed----"

"Oh, Tom, you know that's not what I mean!--of course he has grown
older; but he always was very old for his age. He has become a real boy
now. Perhaps in some things he will seem younger too."

"I always said you were very reasonable," said her husband, admiringly.
"That is just what I wanted you to be prepared for--not a wise little
old man as he was when he had the charge of your soul, Lucy."

She smiled at him, shaking her head. "What ridiculous things you say.
But Jock was always the wise one. He knew much better than I did. He did
take care of me whatever you may think, though he was such a child."

"Perhaps it was as well that he did not continue to take care of you. On
the whole, though I have no such lofty views, I am a better guide."

Lucy looked at him once more without replying for a moment. Was her mind
ever crossed by the idea that there were perhaps certain particulars in
which little Jock was the best guide? If so the blasphemy was
involuntary. She shook it off with a little movement of her head, and
met his glance with her usual serene confidence. "You ought to be," she
said, "Tom; but you liked him always. Didn't y