"Learning all the world!" said her mother smiling, though there was a little touch of regretfulness not quite kept down. "I think I'd rather sit and look at you, child, than eat my dinner. What are you going to do this after noon?"
"I've got a little ironing to do after dinner, mother, and something to make for tea--and Mr. Linden wants to see me for something. I'll get ready for Judge Harrison's, and then after I am through up stairs I'll come down and see to you and my box together. I wish you were going with me, mother."
"Don't you want to go, pretty child?" said Mrs. Derrick fondly.
"No, mother--but I couldn't help it. I found I should have to go sooner or later."
"I'd go with you in a minute," said her mother, "if it wasn't for Mr. Linden. I don't care a pin whether they want me or not, Faith, if _you_ do. And I dare say some of the boys will be here"--Mrs. Derrick looked perplexed, as at the feeling of some unknown possibility. "Shall I, pretty child?" she said with an anxious face,--"what are you thinking of, child?"
Faith came behind her and put both arms round her and kissed first one side of her face and then the other.
"Mother!" she said with those silvery tones,--"I don't want anything! I suppose I shall like to see the microscope--but I'd rather stay at home and learn my lessons. Don't look _so!_"--Which with another kiss upon her lips, finished off Mrs. Derrick's anxiety.
The ironing and the 'something for tea' Faith despatched with extra diligence and speed, and then dressed herself for the evening. It was not much extra dressing; only a dark stuff dress a little finer than ordinary; the white ruffle round the neck and wrists was the same. And then, giving a few minutes to the seeking of some added help to quietness, for Faith's mind had been strangely disturbed, she went again to Mr. Linden's room. A gentle vision she was, if ever one was seen, when she entered it.
"You say I mustn't thank you, Mr. Linden," she said giving him back his sister's letter;--"but--will you thank her for me?"
"I don't think she deserves many thanks," he said with a smile, "but I will tell her."
The course of study that afternoon was peculiar, and eminently a _talk_. Mr. Linden called for none of the usual books at first, but began by giving Faith a very particular account of the whole process of circulation; thence diverging right and left, in the most erratic manner as it seemed to her,--passing from the bright crystal points in chymistry to the blue mould on a piece of bread, and then explaining to her the peculiar mechanism of a fly's eye. Two or three times he sent her to the cupboard for some book to shew her an illustration of the subject, but if there was any connecting link that she could see between one and another, it was simply the wonderful minute perfection of the world. And she needed none--for the different things were touched upon so clearly and yet with such a happy absence of needless details, that they stood forth in full relief, and set off each other. The daylight was already failing, and the red firelight was playing hide and seek with the shadows in Mr. Linden's room, before he gave her a chance to think what time it was. When she saw it, Faith started up.
