Herbert winced. ‘I am sure if I had but known that I was wanted, I would have come,’ he said hesitatingly; ‘but the truth is, I have been occupied both at home and at the barracks for the last few days by some business which I could not leave.’

‘Well, your being here proves that to be all over, and so you are not to think of going away to-day,’ said Amy. ‘I want you to help me with a drawing I am doing for Lady Somerville; and as she is a great connoisseur, it must be as good as our united heads and fingers can make it; and before we sit down to that, I wish you to run down to the river with me, and sketch a group of rocks, hazel-bushes, and reeds, which I want for the foreground of my picture. Now, no excuses, Herbert, though you look as if you were going to begin some,—I will not hear them. Wait here with papa, till I p. . . Read More