"Do you?" said the boy.

"Yes, very much. I should like to see you master them all."

"Then I will. See if I don't," he cried.

"That's right. Try and please Mr Limpney by being energetic."

"Yes, I'll try," said Dexter; "but I don't think he'll be pleased."

"I shall be. Now, get out your last lessons over which you failed so
dismally, and I'll try and help you."

"Will you?" cried the boy, in delighted tones, and he hurriedly obtained
his folio, pens, and ink, feeling in such high spirits that if Bob
Dimsted had been at hand to continue his temptations they would have
been of no avail.

The orange question was first debated, and tried in two or three
different ways without success. Then it was laid aside for the time
being, while the stage-coaches were rolled out and started, one from
London to York, the other from York to London.

"Look here," said Dexter, "I'll try the one that starts from London,
while you try the one from York."

That was only another simple equation, but in its novelty to Helen
Grayson, as difficult as if it had been quadratic, and for a time no
sound was heard but the busy scratching of two pens.

"It's of no good," said Dexter suddenly, and with a look of despair upon
his face. "I'm so terribly stupid."

"I'm afraid, Dexter," said Helen merrily, "if you are stupid, I am too."

"What! can't you do it!"

"No."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, Dexter. Algebra is beyond me."

"Hooray!" cried the boy, leaping from his seat, and dancing round the
room, ending by relieving his excitement by turning head over heels on
the hearthrug.

"Is that to show your delight at my ignorance, Dexter?" said Helen,
smiling.

"No," he cried, colouring up, as he stood before her out of breath. "It
was because I was glad, because I was not so stupid as I thought."

"You are not stupid, Dexter," said Helen, smiling. "We must go back to
the beginning, and try and find out how to do these things. Does not
Mr Limpney explain them to you?"

"Yes," said Dexter dismally, "but when he has done, I don't seem to see
what he means, and it does make me so miserable."

"Poor boy!" said Helen gently. "There, you must not make your studies a
trouble. They ought to be a great pleasure."

"They would be if you taught me," said Dexter eagerly. "I say, do ask
Dr Grayson to send Mr Limpney away, and you help me. I will try so
hard."

"A pretty tutor I should make," cried Helen, laughing. "Why, Dexter