s Faith," he said as he shut the door, "have you been conjugating
the verb s'ennuyer?"

"No," she said. "I was amused to hear you and Miss Essie talk."

"What singular ideas people have on the question of pleasant things!"
said Mr. Linden. "Come in here, Miss Faith"--and he opened the door of
a mingled library, study room, and office--"I want to give you (before
we go any further) the whole quotation which I did not dare to give
Miss Essie, though it would not have been meant for her, if I had." And
he took down one of the books, and read--

"'Her eye,--it seems a chemic test,
And drops upon you like an acid;
It bites you with unconscious zest,
So clear and bright, so coldly placid;
It holds--you quietly aloof,
It holds, and yet it does not win you;
It merely puts you to the proof
And sorts what qualities are in you,' &c.

'There you are classified: she's gone
Far, far away into herself;
Each with its Latin label on,
Your poor components, one by one,
Are laid upon their proper shelf
In her compact and ordered mind,' &c.

'O brain exact, that in thy scales
Canst weigh the sun and never err,
For once thy patient science fails,
One problem still defies thy art;--
Thou never canst compute for her
The distance and diameter
Of any simple human heart.'

That's comforting doctrine--isn't it?" he said smiling as he put up the
book.

"How good that is!" said Faith, as much in the spirit of enjoyment as
of criticism. But it isn't just Miss Essie. It's more like"--She
stopped.

"Well--who? No, it is not Miss Essie."

"I was going to say, Mrs. Somers--but it is not Mrs. Somers, either.
She is more kind than that."

"Yes, I think so--though she keeps her kindness under lock and key,
like her sweetmeats. Miss Faith, shall I give you a loophole view of
those boys--before you venture yourself among them?"

She said yes, with a bright face that shewed her primed for any
enjoyment, or anything else perhaps, he might propose. He knew the
house, apparently, and led her out of one door and in at another,
giving her little undertone remarks by the way.

"I know you and I agree in some of our notions about pleasant things,"
he said, "or I should not presume that you would find this one. To some
people, you know, boys are mere receivers for Latin and Greek--to me
they are separate little pieces of humanity. I study them quite as much
as they do their lessons.