THE CASTLE BUILDERS; OR, The Deferred Confirmation. し BY THE AUTHOR OF "HEARTSEASE," "THE HEIR OF REDCLYFFE," THE CASTLE BUILDERS. CHAPTER I. I would build a cloudy house Hush! I talk my dream alone: I build it on the moon-lit cloud, To which I looked with thee. E. B. BROWNING. ABOUT two o'clock in the afternoon, the yellow foggy light of a spring, or rather winter day in London, came, for it could not be said to shine, through the two windows of a large apartment, which the long table and the numerous desks and books, distinguished as a school-room. Large maps hung against the wall; there was a piano, a pair of globes, sundry drawing desks and easels, in the midst of which were nearly a score of girls from twelve years old to seventeen, their gay chatter and bright looks proving how little power the restraints of school had to check their flow of spirits in this hour of relaxation. Yet there was an air of thoughtfulness on the countenances of two or three of the elder ones, who were seated at their desks, either turning over papers or seeking earnestly in books which seemed of a graver cast than those in which their studies usually lay; blushes, too, there were, and B |