Are you comfortable where you are, in your new lodgings ?" "No." "Why, they do not insult you ?" "No; but they make a noise, and I like to be quiet to think of you." The young philosopher was reconciled again to his scheme.
"Well, Alice--go back--I will take a cottage to-morrow, and you shall be my servant, and I will teach you to read and write and say your prayers, and know that you have a Father above who loves you better than he below.

Meet me again at the same hour to-morrow.

Why do you cry, Alice?
why do you cry ?" "Because--because," sobbed the girl, "I am so happy, and I shall live with you and see you." "Go, child--go, child," said Maltravers, hastily; and he walked away with a quicker pulse than became his new character of master and preceptor.
He looked back, and saw the girl gazing at him; he waved his hand, and she moved on and followed him slowly back to the town.
Maltravers, though not an elder son, was the heir of affluent fortunes; he enjoyed a munificent allowance that sufficed for the whims of a youth who had learned in Germany none of the extravagant notions common to young Englishmen of similar birth and prospects.

He was a spoiled child, with no law but his own fancy,--his return home was not expected,--there was nothing to prevent the indulgence of his new caprice.

The next day he hired a cottage in the neighbourhood, which was one of those pretty thatched edifices, with verandas and monthly roses, a conservatory and a lawn, which justify the English proverb about a cottage and love.