Where was she going to?  She was going to a place called Roxham; here it was written on the ticket.  She was going to be companion to a dear young lady, very rich, like all the English, whom she had met when she had travelled with her French family to Jersey, a Miss Lee.

“You don’t say so!” said Philip.  “Has she come back to Rewtham?”

“What, do you, then, know her?”

“Yes—­that is, I used to three years ago.  I live in the next parish.”

“Ah! then perhaps you are the gentleman of whom I have heard her to speak, Mr. Car-es-foot, whom she did seem to appear to love; is not that the word?—­to be very fond, you know.”

Philip laughed, blushed, and acknowledged his identity with the gentleman whom Miss Lee “did seem to appear to love.”

“Oh!  I am glad; then we shall be friends, and see each other often—­ shall we not?”

He declared unreservedly that she should see him very often.

From Fraulein von Holtzhausen Philip gathered in the course of their journey a good many particulars about Miss Lee.  It appeared that, having attained her majority, she was coming back to live at her old home at Rewtham, whither she had tried to persuade her Aunt Chambers to accompany her, but without success, that lady being too much attached to Jersey to leave it.  During the course of a long stay on the island, the two girls had become fast friends, and the friendship had culminated in an offer being made by Maria Lee to Fraulein von Holtzhausen to come and live with her as a companion, a proposal that exactly suited the latter.

The mention of Miss Lee’s name had awakened pleasant recollections in Philip’s mind, recollections that, at any other time, might have tended towards the sentimental; but, when under fire from the blue eyes of this stately foreigner, it was impossible for him to feel sentimental about anybody save herself.  “The journey is over all too soon,” was the secret thought of each as they stepped on to the Roxham platform.  Before they had finally said good-bye, however, a young lady with a dainty figure, in a shady hat and pink and white dress, came running along the platform.

“Hilda, Hilda, here I am!  How do you do, dear?  Welcome home,” and she was about to seal her welcome with a kiss, when her eye fell upon Philip standing by.

“Oh, Philip!” she cried with a blush, “don’t you know me?  Have I changed much?  I should have known you anywhere; and I am glad to see you, awfully glad (excuse the slang, but it is such a relief to be able to say ‘awful’ without being pulled up by Aunt Chambers).  Just think, it is three years since we met.  Do you remember Grumps?  How do I look?  Do you think you will like me as much as you used to?”

“I think that you are looking the same dear girl that you always used to look, only you have grown very pretty, and it is not possible that I shall like you more than I used to.”