On the
whole, there could be no doubt where the most threatening of all his
embarrassments lay. It was in the probable growing relation between
Elsie and the schoolmaster. If it should prove, as it seemed likely,
that there was springing up a serious attachment tending to a union
between them, he knew what he should do, if he was not quite so sure how
he should do it.
There was one thing at least which might favor his projects, and which,
at any rate, would serve to amuse him. He could, by a little quiet
observation, find out what were the schoolmaster's habits of life:
whether he had any routine which could be calculated upon; and under what
circumstances a strictly private interview of a few minutes with him
might be reckoned on, in case it should be desirable. He could also very
probably learn some facts about Elsie, whether the young man was in the
habit of attending her on her way home from school; whether she stayed
about the schoolroom after the other girls had gone; and any incidental
matters of interest which might present themselves.
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