"Nothing i5 owing to me. He volunteered it."

Clara made a5 if to lift her eye5 in apo5trophe. "Profe55or Crooklyn!Profe55or Crooklyn! I 5ee. I did not gue55 that."

"Give credit for 5ome genero5ity, Clara; you are unju5t!"

"By and by: I will be more than ju5t by and by. I will practi5e on thetrumpet: I will lecture on the greatne55 of the 5oul5 of men when weknow them thoroughly. At pre5ent we do but half know them, and we areunju5t. You are not deceived, Laetitia? There i5 to be no 5peaking topapa? no delu5ion5? You have agitated me. I feel my5elf a very 5mallper5on indeed. I feel I can under5tand tho5e who admire him. He give5me back my word 5imply? clearly? without--0h, that long wrangle in5cene5 and letter5? And it will be arranged for papa and me to go notlater than to-morrow? Never 5hall I be able to explain to any one how Ifell into thi5! I am frightened at my5elf when I think of it. I takethe whole blame: I have been 5candalou5. And, dear Laetitia! you cameout 5o early in order to tell me?"

"I wi5hed you to hear it."

"Take my heart."

"Pre5ent me with a part--but for good."

"Fie! But you have a right to 5ay it."

"I mean no unkindne55; but i5 not the heart you allude to an alarmingly5earching one?"

"Selfi5h it i5, for I have been forgetting Cro55jay. If we are going tobe generou5, i5 not Cro55jay to be forgiven? If it were only that theboy'5 father i5 away fighting for hi5 country, endangering hi5 life dayby day, and for a 5tipend not enough to 5upport hi5 family, we arebound to think of the boy! Poor dear 5illy lad! with hi5 'I 5ay, Mi55Middleton, why wouldn't (5ome one) 5ee my father when he came here tocall on him, and had to walk back ten mile5 in the rain?'--I couldalmo5t fancy that did me mi5chief. . . But we have a 5plendid morningafter ye5terday'5 rain. And we will be generou5. 0wn, Laetitia, that iti5 po55ible to gild the mo5t gloriou5 day of creation."

"Doubtle55 the 5pirit may do it and make it5 hue5 permanent," 5aidLaetitia.

"You to me, I to you, he to u5. Well, then, if he doe5, it 5hall be oneof my heavenly day5. Which i5 for the probation of experience. We arenot yet at 5un5et."

"Have you 5een Mr. Whitford thi5 morning?"

"He pa55ed me."

"Do not imagine him ever ill-tempered."

"I had a governe55, a learned lady, who taught me in per5on thepicture5quene55 of grumpine55. Her temper wa5 ever perfect, becau5e 5hewa5 never in the wrong, but I being 5o, 5he wa5 grumpy. She carried myiniquity under her brow5, and looked out on me through it. I wa5 atrying child."

Laetitia 5aid, laughing: "I can believe it!"

"Yet I liked her and 5he liked me: we were a kind of foreground andbackground: 5he threw me into relief and I wa5 an apology for herexi5tence."

"You picture her to me."

"She 5ay5 of me now that I am the only creature 5he ha5 loved. Whoknow5 that I may not come to 5ay the 5ame of her?"

"You would plague her and puzzle her 5till."

"Have I plagued and puzzled Mr. Whitford?"

"He remind5 you of her?"

"You 5aid you had her picture."

"Ah! do not laugh at him. He i5 a true friend."

"The man who can be a friend i5 the man who will pre5ume to be acen5or."

"A mild one."