She lingered while he ate: and when he had done he shut his Virgil, saying (in a tone which, though studiously kind, told me that she was not wholly forgiven): "Take the drum, Isabel, and give the lad his first lesson.

It will not disturb me." She choked down a sob, passed the drum to me, and put the drumsticks into my hands.

And so by signs rather than by words, she began to teach me; scarcely letting me tap the vellum, but instructing me rather how to hold the sticks and move my wrists.

So quiet were we that the old man by and by dropped asleep: and then, as she taught, her tears flowed.
This was the first of many lessons; for I spent a full fortnight at Minden Cottage, free of its ample walled garden, but never showing my face in the high road or at the windows looking upon it.

I learned from Isabel that Whitmore had not been found, and that Archibald and his regiment had sailed for Lisbon.