By a great and very unusual concession, Polly's lessons were shortened that she might bear me company.

For the day or two before this was decided on I had been very lonely, and Cousin Polly's holiday brought much satisfaction both to me and to her; but it filled poor Miss Blomfield's mind with disquietude, scruples, and misgivings.
In the middle of the square where my uncle and aunt lived there was a garden, with trees, and grass, and gravel-walks; and here Polly and I played at hide and seek, and ran races, and chased each other and Rubens.
The garden was free to all dwellers in the square, and several other children besides ourselves were wont to play there.

One day as I was strolling about, a little boy whom I had not seen before came down the walk and crossed the grass.

He seemed to be a year or two older than myself, and caught my eye immediately by his remarkable beauty, and by the depth of the mourning which he wore.

His features were exquisitely cut, and, in a child, one was not disposed to complain of their effeminacy.