The Michaelmas term was about to open and he must bid farewell to the hospitable roof and the learned conversation of the good vicar.

But when those last days came he realised that he was leaving the scene of his only dream, and his heart grew sad.
Indeed he loved the old red brick vicarage with its low porch, overgrown with creepers, its fragrant old flower garden, surrounding it on three sides, its gabled roof, its south wall whereon the vicar constantly attempted to train fig trees, maintaining that the climate of England had grown warmer and that he would prove it--John loved it all, and especially he loved the little study, lined with the books grown familiar to him, and the study door, the door through which he had seen that lovely face which he firmly believed was to inspire him to do great things and to influence his whole life for ever after.

He would leave the door open and place himself just where he had sat that day, and then he would look suddenly up with beating heart, almost fancying he could again see those violet eyes gazing at him from the dusky passage--blushing then to himself, like any girl, and burying himself in his book till the fancy was grown too strong and he looked up again.

He had attempted to sketch her face on a bit of paper; but he had no skill and he thrust the drawing into the paper basket, horrified at having made anything so hideous in the effort to represent anything so beautiful, and returned to making odes upon her, and Latin epistles, in which he succeeded much better.
And now the time had come when he must leave all this dreaming, or at least the scene of it, and go to college and win scholarships and renown.
It was hard to go and he showed his regret so plainly that Mrs.Ambrose was touched at what she took for his affection for the place and for herself and for the vicar.

John Short was indeed very grateful to her for all the kindness she had shown him, and to Mr.Ambrose for the learning he had acquired; for John was a fine fellow and never forgot an obligation nor undervalued one.