"I fear I didn't knock. The verandah door was open. I saw nobody about. I did not know whether I should find any one. You are so often out now."
"Yes, I walk with old Captain Morgan about this time. In the morning I am always at home."
"If I had known that I should have come in the morning," he said, "not regularly because of the bank, but I should have come once to see you. However, this is far better. I am so glad to find you. I have wished for this for months past. Has it never occurred to you that I was anxious to see you, Hester? You looked to me as if you were keeping away."
"Why should I keep away? I do always the same thing at the same hour. Captain Morgan is old—he requires to have somebody with him."
"And I—I am young, and I want somebody with me."
"Oh, it does not matter about young people," Hester said.
"I think it matters most of all, because they have their life before them; and, don't you know, the choice of a companion tells for so much——"
"A companion!—oh, that is quite a different question," said Hester. "It is teaching I have always wanted, never a companion's place."
"I have heard of that," said Harry. "When you were quite a little thing you wanted to teach, and Aunt Catherine would not let you. You—teaching! It would have been quite out of the question. Won't you sit down? Do come for once, now that I have found you, and sit down here."
It was the little old-fashioned settee that was indicated, where there was just room for two.