“You speak coolly enough; but you suffer in the conflict. You are wasting away.”

“No. If I get a little thin, it is with anxiety about my prospects, yet unsettled — my departure, continually procrastinated. Only this morning, I received intelligence that the successor, whose arrival I have been so long expecting, cannot be ready to replace me for three months to come yet; and perhaps the three months may extend to six.”

“You tremble and become flushed whenever Miss Oliver enters the schoolroom.”

Again the surprised expression crossed his face.

He had not imagined that a woman would dare to speak so to a man. For me, I felt at home in this sort of discourse. I could never rest