prodigies.
There are thousands such as I describe in all happy and well-ordered
English homes; there might be thousands more if parents spent a more
thoughtful care upon the growth of their children; there will be many,
many thousands more as the world, "in the rich dawn of an ampler day,"
in the gradual yet noble progress of social and moral improvement,
becomes purer and holier, and more like Him Who came to be the ideal of
the loftiest, yet the lowliest, of the most clear-sighted, yet the most
loving, of the most happy, and yet the most humble manhood.

CHAPTER TWO.

SAINT WINIFRED'S.

Gay Hope is theirs by Fancy led,
Less pleasing when possess'd,
The tear forgot as soon as shed,
The sunshine of the breast.

Grey.

Walter's destination was the school of Saint Winifred. Let me here say
at once that if any reader set himself to discover what and where the
school of Saint Winifred is, he will necessarily fail. It is
impossible, I suppose, to describe _any_ school without introducing
circumstances so apparently special as to lead some readers into a
supposed identification. But here, and once for all, I distinctly and
seriously repudiate all intention of describing any particular
foundation. I am well aware that for some critics this disclaimer will
be insufficient. But every _honourable_ reader and critic may rest
assured that in describing Saint Winifred's I have not intended to
depict any one school, and that no single word dictated by an unworthy
personality will find a place in the following pages.

Saint Winifred's School stands by the seaside, on the shores of a little
bay embraced and closed in by a range of hills whose sweeping semicircle
is only terminated on either side by the lofty cliffs which, in some
places, are fringed at the base by a margin of sand and shingle, and in
others descend with sheer precipices into the ever-boiling surf. Owing
to the mountainous nature of the country, the railroad cannot approach
within a distance of five miles, and to reach the school you must drive
through the dark groves which cover the lower shoulder of one of the
surrounding mountains. When you reach the summit of this ascent, the
bay of Saint Winifred lies before you; that line of white houses a
quarter of a mile from the shore is the village, and the large
picturesque building of old grey stone, standing in the angle where the
little river reaches the sea, is Saint Winifred's School.

Th