| slowly but surely growing.
| fall in love: they sometimes slide so gradually into

THE PANELLED HOUSE.

81

liked Escott when she found that she could draw
him out and win his confidence when no one else
could: then came the Red Cove adventure, when
his rough championship of her in the boat roused
her gratitude ; and the little seed, thus sown, was
People do not always

it that they do not know where they are going.

j Especially is this the case with a boy and girl

liking, such as this was at present. -

As for Escott, he cherished a secret liking for
Winny, perhaps more definite than hers for him.
“One day, I shall marry her,” he had decided
for some time. She did not treat him like a boy
of no account, as Nest was rather apt to do; her
quick sight had early perceived that his self-
respect was not strong enough to bear slights with
equanimity, and she had more than once saved

him from them. Escott was quite aware that he

was a different person in his confidences with

; Winny to what he was usually. She could bring

out the best and most manly part of his character,

{and he was ashamed to grumble when the brown
j eyes were looking up with laughing penetration
} into his face.

“IT don’t know what good it is my

) talking to you, Winny. I believe you know every

thing beforehand,” he said one day, half crossly,
half laughing.

“You are not so very difficult to read, perhaps
said Winny with her light laugh.

“ Well, if you know all about me, why don’t you
give me up at once?” he said; “other people do.”

“ Because they don’t know all about you, and I
know there is some good in you after all,” answered
Winny with her laughing eyes.

One lovely August day, there was a cricket-
match played in the Erconbury cricket-ground.

bP)
?

| Erconbury was playing Southshire, and Erconbury
| people were more or less excited about it, as this
| was always considered the best match of the year.
| Escott, who was a good cricketer, was one of the

Erconbury eleven: and, persuaded by Winny, the
whole of the Panelled House party, as well as
Colonel Armyn, Flora, and Mrs. Escott, appeared

| on the ground to watch the game.

No piece of gaiety came amiss to Winny ; and
she found plenty of people to come up and talk to

| her as she sat by her aunt’s side, radiant in white
j and cherry colour, with a bit of red geranium and

j white jessamine pinned at her throat.

Aunt

| Hermy wished that Winny would not be quite so

cordial in her manner to every body. It was the
same fault which Browning’s Duke of Ferrara

| found with his “ Last Duchess.”

She had
A heart—how shall I say—too soon made glad,
Too easily impress’d: she liked whate’er
She look’d on, and her looks went every where.
VOL. Ix. N.S.—NO. L.

Though kind-hearted Aunt Hermy had no idea
of punishing her niece for her want of dignity, it
gave her some little uneasiness all the same.

Mrs. Escott was not learned in cricket, and her
notions on the subject were somewhat hazy.

“Now tell me about it, my dear,” she said to
Winny. ‘That is a Southshire man at that end,
isn’t it ? and this is an Erconbury man here, and
they are trying to hit one another with the ball.
What a good thing it is that there is somuch space
between them, or it might be quite dangerous !”

Southshire went in first, and made a little over
a hundred. Then, during the Erconbury innings,
Escott strolled up towards his party, to talk to
them. He was a shy youth, and much afraid of
being patronized by some of the other men in ‘the
eleven; more especially by Jack Heydon, tlie Rugby
schoolboy. He had improved greatly in looks
during this year; his figure had become firmer
knit, and his bearing more graceful; and the
outline of a dark moustache softened his heavy
mouth, and made him look rather a handsome lad
than otherwise. Winny moved upon her seat a
little to give him room to sit beside her.

“So you are really going to a tutor’s for a
year ?”

“Yes ; Burnet persuaded my father at last. I
fancy it will be awfully dull, but not worse than
this, thank heaven. I wouldn’t have stood another
year of it for a thousand pounds at the end. And
Burnet is no great scholar, you know. By Jove,
what a ball to miss! That fellow deserved to
be out that time.”

“Do you like the Southshire men? are they
pleasant ?”

“Not very. I heard one or two of them making
remarks about me as public-school men always do.
But I mean to show them I can play notwith-
standing.”

Yes, do,” said Winny eagerly.

“T believe I can manage with that bowling,”
proceeded Escott, looking critically at the game.
‘© Will you be here all the time, Winny ?”

“Oh, yes; I hope so. I mean to get Aunt
Hermy to let me stay with Mrs. Heydon, if the
rest go away before. I know Mrs. Heydon will
want to stay to the end.”

“That’s all right. I should not play half so
well if nobody was looking on that I cared about,”
said Escott. “The governor don’t care two
straws, and Flora only wants to show her pretty
face and her new hat.”

“T care very much,” said Winny, too simply
for him to take the avowal in any other sense but
as it was meant.. “‘ Here is Jack Heydon, looking
for you, I think.”

“Oh, Armyn: there you are,” said a tall, fresh-
coloured giant, in a striped shirt, striding up to

$$$

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