The thought sent the blood to her cheeks, which were scarlet as Jack came in, eager and delighted to find her alone.

“Locked up like a prisoner,” he said, as he took her hand, which he held longer than was at all necessary, while he looked into her eyes, where the gladness at seeing him again was showing so plainly.

When he last saw her she was arrayed in Mrs. Biggs’s spotted calico, and he was quick to note the change.  He had thought her lovely before; she was beautiful now, with the brightness in her eyes and the color coming and going so rapidly on her cheeks.  Drawing a chair close to her, he sat down just where he could look at her as he talked, and could watch the varying expression on her face.  Once he laid his hand on the arm of her chair, but withdrew it when he saw her troubled look, as if she feared he was getting too familiar.  He asked her about her sprain, and was greatly interested, or seemed to be, in the massage and rubber band which were helping her so much.  Then he spoke of Ruby Ann, the biggest woman he ever saw, he believed, and just the one for a school-teacher.  He was past the school-house the day before, he said.  It seemed they had half a day on Saturday and half a day on Wednesday.  It was the boys’ recess, and he never heard such a hullaballoo as they were making.  A tall, lanky boy seemed to be the leader, whom the others followed.

“That must be Tom Walker, the one who makes all the trouble, and whom Mr. Bills and Mrs. Biggs think I can’t manage,” Eloise said, with a little gasp, such as she always felt when she thought of Tom, who, Tim had reported, was boasting of what he meant to do with the lame schoolmarm when she came.

Jack detected the trouble in her voice, and asked who Tom Walker was.  It did not take long for Eloise to tell all she knew, while Jack listened thoughtfully, resolving to seek out Tom, and by thrashing, or threatening, or hiring, turn him from any plan he might have against this little girl, who seemed to him far too young and dainty to be thrown upon the mercy of the rabble he had seen by the school-house with Tom Walker at their head.

“Don’t worry about Tom.  Big bullies like him are always cowards.  You’ll get along all right,” he said encouragingly, with a growing desire to take the helpless girl in his arms and carry her away from Tom Walker and Mr. Bills and Mrs. Biggs, and the whole of her surroundings, which she did not seem at all to fit.

He wanted to entertain her, and told her of an excursion on the water he had taken the previous day with Howard Crompton,—­the last of the season, he said, and very enjoyable.  He wished she had been there.  Then he spoke of the Colonel, laughing at his peculiarities, and asking if she had ever heard of the Crompton “Formula.”  She said she had from Ruby Ann, and was glad she was not to be subjected to questioning on it, as she knew she should fail in everything except the four rights.  She might manage them, but it was not necessary for her to be examined by anybody, since her normal school diploma was a license to teach anywhere in the State.