there were so many, both of the future and the
past: it was very hard to keep her attention to the little boy's Latin
grammar. And Geoff on his side was weary too; he should have been in a
schoolroom, shut out from temptation, with maps hung along the walls,
instead of waving trees, and where he could not have stopped to cry out,
"I say, mamma, there's a squirrel. I am certain it is a squirrel," in
the midst of his exercises. That, of course, was very bad. And then
up to a recent period he had shared all, or almost all, his mother's
thoughts; but since his father's death these had become so full of
complications that a child could no longer share them, though neither
quite understood the partial severance which had ensued. Both were
relieved, however, when the old butler appeared at the end of the
terrace, pointing out to Warrender where the little group was. The man
did not think it necessary to expose himself to the full blaze of the
sunshine in order to lead "a great friend" like Mr. Warrender close up
to my lady's chair.

"We are very glad to see you; in fact, we are much too glad to see you,"
said Lady Markland, with a smile. "We are ashamed to say that we were
not entering into our work as we ought. Nature is always so busy doing a
hundred things, and calling us to come and look what she is about. We
take more interest in her occupations than in our own."

"Mamma makes a story of everything," said Geoff, half aggrieved; "but
I'm in earnest. Grammar is dreadful stuff; there are no reflections in
it. Why can't one begin to read books straight off, without nasty,
stupid rules?"

Warrender took little note of what the boy said. Meanwhile he had shaken
hands and made his salutations, and his sovereign lady, with a smile,
had given him a chair. He felt himself entering, out of the blank world
outside, into the sphere of her existence, which was his Vita Nuova, and
was capable for the moment of no other thought.

"I think," said Lady Markland,--"for we have really been at it
conscientiously for a long time and doing our best,--I think, Geoff, we
may shut up our books for to-day. You know there will be your lessons to
prepare to-night."

"I'll go and look at Theo's horse. Have you got that big black one? I
shall be back in a moment, mamma."

"If you look behind you will find some books, Geoff; some that perhaps
you will like."

"Oh, good!" said the boy, with his elfish little countenance lighting
up. He was very