The general store had a gaily dressed lay figure in its window,--a female figure,--and its gown was labelled 'The Latest Parisian Novelty.' The theological student was going out to take tea.

He was a tall, active fellow, and his long strides soon brought him to a house a little way out of the town, which was evidently the abode of some degree of taste and luxury.

The house was of wood, painted in dull colours of red and brown; it had large comfortable verandahs under shingled roofs.

Its garden was not old-fashioned in the least; but though it aspired to trimness the grass had not grown there long enough to make a good lawn, so the ribbon flower-beds and plaster vases of flowers lacked the green-velvet setting that would have made them appear better.

The student was the less likely to criticise the lawn because a very pretty, fresh-looking girl met him at the gate.
She was really a fine girl.