Light glanced from their casements.

I was not surprised at this, for I knew Miss Vernon often sat there of an evening, though from motives of delicacy I put a strong restraint upon myself, and never sought to join her at a time when I knew, all the rest of the family being engaged for the evening, our interviews must necessarily have been strictly _tete-a'-tete._ In the mornings we usually read together in the same room; but then it often happened that one or other of our cousins entered to seek some parchment duodecimo that could be converted into a fishing-book, despite its gildings and illumination, or to tell us of some "sport toward," or from mere want of knowing where else to dispose of themselves.

In short, in the mornings the library was a sort of public room, where man and woman might meet as on neutral ground.

In the evening it was very different and bred in a country where much attention is paid, or was at least then paid, to _biense'ance,_ I was desirous to think for Miss Vernon concerning those points of propriety where her experience did not afford her the means of thinking for herself.

I made her therefore comprehend, as delicately as I could, that when we had evening lessons, the presence of a third party was proper.
Miss Vernon first laughed, then blushed, and was disposed to be displeased; and then, suddenly checking herself, said, "I believe you are very right; and when I feel inclined to be a very busy scholar, I will bribe old Martha with a cup of tea to sit by me and be my screen." Martha, the old housekeeper, partook of the taste of the family at the Hall.