ou like to have me come every morning?"

"Oh how much!--But that's no use, Endecott."

"Why not?"

"I mustn't get to depending upon you too much," she said with a smile.

"What had you been musing about--to make you so glad this morning?" he
said looking at her.

"Nothing!--but those passages as you read them one after the other were
so beautiful, and felt so strong.--It was a great pleasure to hear you
read them,"--she said dropping her voice a little in confession.

"It shall be as you like, darling, about my coming again. But dear
Faith, of this other morning work you must let me say a word."

"What, Endecott?"

"You are doing too much."

"No. What makes you think so?"

Significantly Mr. Linden laid his hand on the pile of study books.

"Well?"

"Well.--For the future please to let these gentry rest in peaceful
seclusion until after breakfast."

"Oh no, Endy!"

"My dear, I shall have you turning into a moonbeam. Just imagine what
it would cost me to call you 'pale Cynthia'!"

"You needn't imagine it, Endecott."

"Only so far as to prevent the reality. Do you know I have been afraid
of this for some time."

"Of what?"

"Afraid that you were disregarding the bounds I have laid down for
study and the sun for sleep."

"I didn't know you had laid down any bounds," she said gaily
again--"and I never did mind the sun."

"Well won't you mind me?" said he smiling. "I have a right to expect
that in study matters, you know."

"Don't try me--" said Faith, very winningly, much more than she knew.
He stood looking at her, with the sweet unbent expression which was her
special right.

"Faith, don't you mean to love to have me take care of you?"

That brought a change of look, and it was curious to see the
ineffectual forces gather to veil what in spite of them wreathed in her
smile and laid an additional roseleaf upon each cheek. The shy eyes
retreated from view; then they were raised again as she touched his arm
and said, with a demure softness, "What must I do, Endy?"

"Be content with the old study hours, my dear child. They are long
enough, and many enough."

"Oh Endy!--not for me."

"For thee."

Faith looked down and looked disturbed.

"Then, Endecott, I sha'n't be as wise as I want to be,--nor as you want
to have me."

"Then you will be just as wise as I want you to be," he said with a
smile. "As to the rest, pretty child,--do you mean that my wife shall
deprive me of my scholar?"

F