Yet when they were alone together she frankly found him very amusing, and his presumption and vulgarity so clearly unintentional that it no longer offended her.

They were good friends without having any confidences beyond the duties of the school; she had asked no further explanation of the fact that he had been selected by Mr.Barstow without reference to any special antecedent training.

What his actual antecedents were she had never cared to know, nor he apparently to reveal; that he had been engaged in some other occupations of superior or inferior quality would not have been remarkable in a community where the principal lawyer had been a soldier, and the miller a doctor.

The fact that he admired her was plain enough to HER; that it pleased her, but carried with it no ulterior thought or responsibility, might have been equally clear to others.

Perhaps it was so to HIM.
Howbeit, this easy mutual intercourse was one day interrupted by what seemed a trifling incident.