LM

I look on thee, and straightway
My heart is fill’d with care :

My hand on thy head, meseemeth,
I needs must lay, to entreat

That God would ever keep thee
As fair and pure and sweet.

Yet it was not exactly the object for which he
had been sent to Oxford, and he had no absolute
reason to complain if his father found fault with
him for the result.

One day in the Easter vacation, they were all
in the beechwoods, hunting for primroses for church
decoration. Winny had enlisted Escott and Flora
to help her: and Jack Heydon, who was also at
home now, had joined the party. In the course of
the afternoon Escott and Winny found themselves
alone together.

“T say, Winny, Flora put me in a nice fright.
She told me Jack Heydon and you were always
together, and she expected to hear you were
engaged.”

“Well,” said Winny, laughing, “ you will know
next time how to believe the little stories Flora
sends you about me. Jack Heydon, indeed, poor
old fellow !”

“Tt was no laughing matter to me. Winny,
you know what will happen to me if you give me
up.”

“My dear Escott, I am not going to give you
up. Have I ever broken my promise to you yet?”

“No—but it is too bad never to hear any thing
from you for so long. Couldn’t you write to me
now and then ?”

“No,” said Winny decidedly, shaking her head.
“My aunts would not like it. We must wait.
But really, Escott, if I trust you, you might trust
me.”

“Don’t I trust you? Why, what do you think
but the thought of you has kept me straight all
this time? I tell you, Winny, I’ve just thought,
‘I shouldn’t like her to know, so I won’t do it,’
many a time when nothing else would have stopped
me. But if you turn round and give me up, there’s
nothing to save me any more.”

“Oh, Escott, I wish—I wish you wouldn’t talk
as if it was only me that you cared for!” said
Winny with the tears in her eyes. “It sounds so
wicked—as if you didn’t mind what God thought
of you,” she added with a faltering voice.

“There it is again,” said Escott. ‘“ Winny, you
are like a bird in a cage, wondering why the birds
out of doors let the hawk hunt them down. I
don’t know what to think about these things.
There’s one man I know says that God is only
another name for this great machine of nature that
goes round and round, drawing the stars round in
their orbits, and giving life to the trees and animals
just as much as tous. Then there’s another who
says that there is no such thing as right and wrong

136 THE PANELLED HOUSE.

except in the abstract: that nobody can possibly
help doing what his appointed nature drives him
to do, and that it would be most unjust to call him
accountable. And then there is another man who
firmly believes that seven-eighths of the world are
going straight to hell, and the other eighth is to
be saved by arbitrary decree—how is one to know
what to believe now-a-days? I believe in you,
Winny, that is all I know.”

“Escott, I don’t know what to say, I am no
good at arguing, and I can’t understand all your
odd new ideas. But I only know this, that I am
sure that God means you to be good, and will
make you good some day. And if you would only
read your Bible, you would find out how. If you
don’t know things, why don’t you ask somebody
who does? Surely there must be lots of people at
Oxford who would help you ; what is the good of
all those colleges, and fellows, and tutors otherwise?”

“JT would rather take you for my father-confes-
sor than them ; I always told you I would do any
any thing you told me.”

“Well then, it is very horrid of you Escott.
Yes, I mean it really. I can’t bear to hear you
say you only care to do right because of me. Per-
haps once I should have liked it and thought it a
fine thing ; but now I—I—I’m afraid,” and Winny
began tocry. ‘Perhaps I might do wrong, or even
die, and then where would yoube ? Escott, if you
would only begin to do right, because it is right,
and not because of me——”

“JT couldn’t if I tried,” hesaid. ‘Ask my father
what he would give for the chance of a man with
Escott blood in him coming to any good.”

“Tam not going to ask your father, and I don’t
care what he says about it; I only know what the
Bible says.”

“ Well, what ?” in a half reluctant tone.

“<¢ The Lord is loving unto every man, and His
mercy is over all His works,’” quoted Winny under
her breath.

Then they walked on quietly together without
any more words for a time. So true it is that we
live in an atmosphere of mystery which enshrouds
the most familiar lives from each other, that not
one of the nearest and dearest of these two had any
notion that there was any mutual confidence between
them on any subject deeper than skating or cricket,
Erconbury gossip, or Oxford jokes. They did not
dream that when this gay, giddy girl, and this sul-
len, heavy-looking young man were together, they
touched the depth of each other’s souls, and that
each left an abiding impress upon the other, which
neither life nor death would be able thenceforth to
efface. Well for them that it was Winny’s higher
nature which influenced Escott, and not Eseott’s
lower nature which touched Winny.

Suddenly they found themselves in the presence