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rarely
occupied. Mr. Wilkins's study, on the other side of the house, was also
an afterthought, built only a few years ago, and projecting from the
regularity of the outside wall; a little stone passage led to it from the
hall, small, narrow, and dark, and out of which no other door opened.
    The study itself was a hexagon, one side window, one fireplace, and the
remaining four sides occupied with doors, two of which have been already
mentioned, another at the foot of the narrow winding stairs which led
straight into Mr. Wilkins's bedroom over the dining-room, and the fourth
opening into a path through the shrubbery to the right of the
flower-garden as you looked from the house. This path led through the
stable-yard, and then by a short cut right into Hamley, and brought you
out close to Mr. Wilkins's office; it was by this way he always went and
returned to his business. He used the study for a smoking and lounging
room principally, although he always spoke of it as a convenient place
for holding confidential communications with such of his clients as did
not like discussing their business within the possible hearing of all the
clerks in his office. By the outer door he could also pass to the
stables, and see that proper care was taken at all times of his favourite
and valuable horses. Into this study Ellinor would follow him of a
morning, helping him on with his great-coat, mending his gloves, talking
an infinite deal of merry fond nothing; and then, clinging to his arm,
she would accompany him in his visits to the stables, going up to the
shyest horses, and petting them, and patting them, and feeding them with
bread all the time that her father held converse with Dixon. When he was
finally gone—and sometimes it was a long time first—she returned to the
schoolroom to Miss Monro, and tried to set herself hard at work on her
lessons. But she had not much time for steady application; if her father
had cared for her progress in anything, she would and could have worked
hard at that study or accomplishment; but Mr. Wilkins, the ease and
pleasure loving man, did not wish to make himself into the pedagogue, as
he would have considered it, if he had ever questioned Ellinor with a
real steady purpose of ascertaining her intellectual progress. It was
quite enough for him that her general intelligence and variety of
desultory and miscellaneous reading made her a pleasant and agreeable
companion for his hours of relaxation.
    At twelve o'clock, Ellinor put away her books with joyful eagerness,
kissed Miss Monro, asked her if they should go a regular walk, and was
always rather thankful when it was decided that it would be better to
stroll in the garden—a decision very often come to, for Miss Monro hated
fatigue, hated dirt, hated scrambling, and dreaded rain; all of which are
evils, the chances of which are never far distant from country walks. So
Ellinor danced out into the garden, worked away among her flowers, played
at the old games among the roots of the trees, and, when she could,
seduced Dixon into the flower-garden to have a little consultation as to
the horses and dogs. For it was one of her father's few strict rules
that Ellinor was never to go into the stable-yard unless he were with
her; so these
tete-a-tetes
with Dixon were always held in the flower-
garden, or bit of forest ground surrounding it. Miss Monro sat and
basked in the sun, close to the dial, which made the centre of the gay
flower-beds, upon which the dining-room and study windows looked.
    At one o'clock, Ellinor and Miss Monro dined. An hour was allowed for
Miss Monro's digestion, which Ellinor again spent out of doors, and at
three, lessons began again and lasted till five. At that time they went
to dress preparatory for the schoolroom tea at half-past five. After tea
Ellinor tried to prepare her lessons for the next day; but all the time
she was listening for her father's footstep—the moment she heard that,
she dashed down her book, and flew out of the