ucation, but I cannot entertain pleasantly the thought of
her growing up to womanhood under the influences which are about her
here. What those influences are you will not expect me to explain in
detail. I am sure it will be enough to win upon your sympathy to say
that they are Popish and thoroughly French. I feel a strong wish,
therefore,--much as I am attached to the dear child,--to give her the
advantages of a New England education and training. And with this wish,
my thought reverts naturally to the calm quietude of your little town
and of your household; for I cannot doubt that it is the same under the
care of your sister as in the old time."

"I am glad he thinks so well of me," said Miss Eliza, but with an irony
in her tone that she was sure the good parson would never detect.

The Doctor looks at her thoughtfully a moment, over the edge of the
letter,--as if he, too, had his quiet comparisons to make,--then goes on
with the letter:--

"This wish may surprise you, since you remember my old battlings with
what I counted the rigors of a New England 'bringing-up'; but in this
case I should not fear them, provided I could assure myself of your
kindly supervision. For my little Adele, besides inheriting a great flow
of spirits (from her father, you will say) and French blood, has been
used thus far to a catholic latitude of talk and manner in all about
her, which will so far counterbalance the gravities of your region as to
leave her, I think, upon a safe middle ground. At any rate, I see enough
to persuade me to choose rather the errors that may grow upon her
girlhood there than those that would grow upon it here.

"Frankly, now, may I ask you to undertake, with your good sister, for a
few years, the responsibility which I have suggested?"

The Doctor looked over the edge of the sheet toward Miss Eliza.

"Read on, Benjamin," said she.

"The matter of expenses, I am happy to say, is one which need not enter
into your consideration of the question. My business successes have been
such that any estimate which you may make of the moneys required will be
at your call at the office of our house in Newburyport.

"I have the utmost faith in you, my dear Johns; and I want you to have
faith in the earnestness with which I press this proposal on your
notice. You will wonder, perhaps, how the mother of my little Adele can
be a party to such a plan; but I may assure you, that, if your consent
be gained, it will meet with