Wych Hazel

eyes, but we ca

clear and gra

rate, felt one of the men in this history. Schools had done their secluding work for a time; tutors and governors had come and gone under an almost Carthusian vow of silence, except as to their les

irk let the first March winds blow him out of town; and at this present time was snug

his difficulties? There was a flutter of young life within doors as without, and Mr. Falkirk knew it: there were a hundred rills of music, a thousand nameless flowers to which he could not close his senses.

en she, a suddenly orphaned child, stood frightened and alone among strangers, and he came in and took her on his knee, and bade her "b

odgings were the rule, they lived in separate houses; only his was always close at hand. Even when his ward was a little child, living at Chickaree with her nurses and housekeeper, Mr. Falkirk never spent a night in the house. He formally bought and paid for a tiny cottage on the premises, and there he lived: nothing done without his knowledge, nothing undone without his notice. Not a creature came or went unperceived by Mr. Falkirk. And yet this supervision was generally pleasant

ust my 'onor is suffi

rds each other. She teased him, and Gotham bore it mastiff-wise; shaking his head, and

whether her parents, as they looked into the baby's clear dark eyes, saw there anything weird or elfish,-or

cent o' musk

old, like prece

lkirk could