’Oh, Ross,’ I sobbed, ’I never left the house at all, I only ran out into the garden.’ ’Of course, darling.’ ’And it wasn’t the middle of the night either, Ross, it was four o’clock in the morning.’ And he agreed that it was _quite_ different. When daddy came the Mistress regretted that I would have to be expelled, but she trusted that a father’s care and watchful eye were all I needed. She hoped and believed I had no vice. I cried some more against father’s sleeve then, because Ross had said once that people were only expelled for really rotten things,— ’It was the bluebells, daddy.’ ’Of course it was, darling,’ he said, ’but they’re heaps bigger in Devonshire.’ ’That child is on the road to ruin,’ groaned my aunt. Father said to Ross in the cab that crabbed age and youth never could live together, and that woman was enough to make an Evangelical parson turn Papist. But something happened while I was at school that I can’t forget. We were allowed occasionally to go to Evensong, and once in the dimness of the church I saw a man gazing at me. He looked like a soldier in the Indian army—not a bit handsome, but he had a certain rugged strength that made his face seem rather splendid. The keen, clear eyes were gray and stern, but softened as they looked at me. I felt as if I knew him. I have often thought since of that ’absent face that fixed me,’ and I find myself comparing other men with him, and somehow, I can’t explain it very well, I think I feel a little older since I saw him. *CHAPTER VII* Oh, it was topping to get home. Nannie said I was most frightfully thin. She seemed quite worried about it, but the cook said consolingly,— ’Oh, we all ebbs and flows, especially gals. She only wants the crip o’ the crame and an egg beat up in a drop of good milk.’ The next day I woke up with a spot on my chest, and Nannie said I was feverish, and daddy got in a panic and sent for Doctor Merriwater. His name is Tobias, but we always call him Toby. When he came he looked at my spot most earnestly and said,— ’Why, good gracious, the child has got the measles, the one and only measle, she’s in a frightfully dangerous state. Don’t let her get up for at least two days and I’ll send you round a collar and a chain at once or I’m afraid her measle will be gone before the morning.’ When I was better I asked father if I could be presented, as I had left school, and Monica was going to be. ’No,’ he said, ’I’ve had quite enough of London for you for the moment.’ ’Oh, daddy, why not?’ Father turned autocratic then and said, ’Because I don’t choose, darling.’ So, of course, I couldn’t say any more. But after a minute he twinkled at me,— ’Sorry, little ’un, but a parson has to "rule his children!" It’s one of Timothy’s conditions.’ ’Oh, that was deacons, daddy! and you’re a vicar.’ ’Or if "a man desires the office of a bishop," Meg.’