But it was better to do that than to risk a County Court action." Then the carriage came and he departed.
The upshot of it all was that Isobel became another of Mr.Knight's pupils.

When Mr.Blake suggested the arrangement to his wife, she raised certain objections, among them that associating with these little lads might make a tomboy of the girl, adding that she had been taught with children of her own sex.

He retorted in his rough marital fashion, that if it made something different of Isobel to what she, the mother, was, he would be glad.

Indeed, as usual, Lady Jane's opposition settled the matter.
Now for the next few years of Isobel's life there is little to be told.
Mr.Knight was an able man and a good teacher, and being a clever girl she learned a great deal from him, especially in the way of mathematics, for which, as has been said, she had a natural leaning.
Indeed very soon she outstripped Godfrey and the other lads in this and sundry other branches of study, sitting at a table by herself on what once had been the dais of the old hall.

In the intervals of lessons, however, it was their custom to take walks together and then it was that she always found herself at the side of Godfrey.