asked rather abruptly, leaning forward from the back
seat.

"If ever I was fastidious," she answered, "I think I am pretty nearly
cured. I should certainly like my work to be so far within my capacity
as to be pleasant to me."

"Then there is no fear," answered the curate. "The people who don't get
on, are those that pick and choose upon false principles. They
generally attempt what they are unfit for, and deserve their
failures.--Are you willing to teach little puds and little tongues?"

"Certainly."

"Tell me what you are able to do?"

"I would rather not. You might think differently when you came to know
me. But you can ask me any questions you please. I shan't hide my
knowledge, and I can't hide my ignorance."

"Thank you," said the curate, and leaned back again in his seat.

After luncheon, Helen found to her delight that, although Juliet was
deficient enough in the mechanics belonging to both voice and
instrument, she could yet sing and play with expression and facility,
while her voice was one of the loveliest she had ever heard. When the
curate came home from his afternoon attentions to the ailing of his
flock, he was delighted to hear his wife's report of her gifts.

"Would you mind reading a page or two aloud?" he said to their visitor,
after they had had a cup of tea. "I often get my wife to read to me."

She consented at once. He put a volume of Carlyle into her hand. She had
never even tasted a book of his before, yet presently caught the spirit
of the passage, and read charmingly.

In the course of a day or two they discovered that she was sadly
defective in spelling, a paltry poverty no doubt, yet awkward for one
who would teach children. In grammar and arithmetic also the curate
found her lacking. Going from place to place with her father, she had
never been much at school, she said, and no one had ever compelled her
to attend to the dry things. But nothing could be more satisfactory than
the way in which she now, with the help of the curate and his wife, set
herself to learn; and until she should have gained such proficiency as
would enable them to speak of her acquirements with confidence, they
persuaded her, with no great difficulty, to continue their guest.
Wingfold, who had been a tutor in his day, was well qualified to assist
her, and she learned with wonderful rapidity.

The point that most perplexed Wingfold with her was that, while very
capable of perceiving and admiring the good, s