be right."

"Mayn't I occasionally do wrong?--just for variety's sake!"

"_You_ may--and I don't doubt you would. I was thinking of my own part."

"I am glad you don't say you have no doubt I _do_," said Mr. Linden. "I
suppose you mean that I would if sufficient temptation came up, which
of course it never has."

Faith looked an instant, and then her gravity broke up. "Ah, but you
know what I mean," she said.

"You will have to furnish _me_ with a dictionary next," he said
smiling. "Look at my watch--Miss Faith, how can you have tea so late,
when I have been teaching all day?--it isn't right,--and cuts off one's
time for philosophizing besides."

Faith ran into the house, to tell the truth, with a very pleased face;
and tea was on the table in less time than Cindy could ever understand.
But during tea-time Faith looked, furtively, to see if any signs were
to be found that little Johnny Fax had been made to yield up his
testimony. Whether he had or no, she could see none; which however, as
she justly concluded with herself, proved nothing.

The new grammar was far easier understood than the old. Although Mr.
Linden unfolded his newspaper, and informed Faith that he intended to
read 'uninterruptedly'--so that she 'need feel no scruple about
interrupting him'--yet he probably had the power of reading two things
at once; for his assistance was generally given before it was asked.
His explanations too, whether Faith knew it or not, covered more ground
than the _French_ exigency absolutely required,--he was not picking
this lock for her, but giving her the grammar key.

But Faith knew it and felt it; and tasted the help thus given, with an
appreciation which only it needed to do all its work; the keen delight
of one seeking knowledge, who has never been helped and who has for the
first time the right kind of help. Indeed, with the selfishness
incident to human nature, she forgot all about Mr. Linden's intention
to read uninterruptedly, and took without scruple or question, all the
time he bestowed upon her. And it was not till some minutes after she
had closed her books, that her low, grateful "You are very good, Mr.
Linden!" reached his ear.

Now the fact was, that Faith had been much observed that
afternoon,--her reading-dream on the steps had been so pretty a thing
to see, that when Squire Deacon had seen it once he came back to see it
again; and what number of views he would have taken cannot be told, had
he no