't
make you so _dreadfully_ sorry. Herr Wildermann, do tell me all about
it? Is it because--because of the money?" he whispered at last. "Are you
so--does it matter so much?"

Ulric turned his pale face to the boy. Its expression was still
sad--very sad, but quiet and resigned.

"Yes, my child," he said composedly. "Why should I hide it? There is no
shame in it--yes, it is because of the money. We are _very_ poor. And
also I had hoped much from giving you lessons. I thought if I succeeded
as I expected it would have brought me other pupils."

Basil gazed up in the young man's face for a moment or two without
speaking. He did not take in ideas very quickly, and perhaps he had
never before in his life thought so seriously as at this moment.

"I see," he said at last. "I did not understand before. If I had
known--but even now it is not too late, Herr Wildermann. I need not give
up my lessons. I will ask mother to let me go on with them, and you will
see she will agree in a moment."

A gleam of pleasure lighted up Ulric's pale face, but it faded almost as
quickly as it had come.

"Thank you for your kind thought, my little friend," he said; "but what
you propose would not be right. It would not be right for your mother to
pay me money for teaching you when she had decided that she did not want
me to teach you any more. It would be a mere charity to me--it would be
more honest for me to ask for charity at once," he went on, the colour
mounting to his face. "No, Basil, it could not be; but thank you as
much. Now let us go on with our lesson."

Basil understood, but was not satisfied. The lesson passed quietly.
Never had the boy so thoroughly given his attention, or tried so hard
to overcome the difficulties which had so disheartened him.

"It is too bad," he said to himself; "but it is all my own fault. I
believe I could have got on if I had really tried. And now it is too
late. He wouldn't give me lessons now, for he would think it was only
for him."

Suddenly an idea struck him.

"Herr Wildermann," he said, "won't you do _this_? Suppose I ask for just
six lessons more, and I _will_ try. You'll see if I don't. Well, after
these six, if I'm not getting on any better, it'll be given up. But if I
am, and if I really _want_ to go on, you won't think it's not right,
will you?"

Ulric hesitated.

"No," he said; "I have no scruples in going on teaching you, for I feel
certain you could learn well if you were more ho