He conducted himself, at first, with his usual cold, distant, half-stately, half-melancholy, altogether injured air; but Esther made no remark upon it this time: she had evidently been schooled into better manners.

She talked to me, and laughed and romped with little Arthur, her loved and loving playmate.

He, somewhat to my discomfort, enticed her from the room to have a run in the hall, and thence into the garden.

I got up to stir the fire.

Mr.Hargrave asked if I felt cold, and shut the door--a very unseasonable piece of officiousness, for I had meditated following the noisy playfellows if they did not speedily return.