is fond of you, or would ever have you?"

"I asked Mr. Farebrother to talk to her, because she had forbidden me--
I didn't know what else to do," said Fred, apologetically. "And he

says that I have every reason to hope, if I can put myself in an
honorable position--I mean, out of the Church I dare say you think it

unwarrantable in me, Mr. Garth, to be troubling you and obtruding my
own wishes about Mary, before I have done anything at all for myself.

Of course I have not the least claim--indeed, I have already a debt
to you which will never be discharged, even when I have been,

able to pay it in the shape of money."
"Yes, my boy, you have a claim," said Caleb, with much feeling

in his voice. "The young ones have always a claim on the old to
help them forward. I was young myself once and had to do without

much help; but help would have been welcome to me, if it had been
only for the fellow-feeling's sake. But I must consider. Come to

me to-morrow at the office, at nine o'clock. At the office, mind."
Mr. Garth would take no important step without consulting Susan,

but it must be confessed that before he reached home he had
taken his resolution. With regard to a large number of matters

about which other men are decided or obstinate, he was the most
easily manageable man in the world. He never knew what meat

he would choose, and if Susan had said that they ought to live
in a four-roomed cottage, in order to save, he would have said,

"Let us go," without inquiring into details. But where Caleb's
feeling and judgment stronglypronounced, he was a ruler;

and in spite of his mildness and timidity in reproving, every one
about him knew that on the exceptional occasions when he chose,

he was absolute. He never, indeed, chose to be absolute except on
some one else's behalf. On ninety-nine points Mrs. Garth decided,

but on the hundredth she was often aware that she would have to perform
the singularly difficult task of carrying out her own principle,

and to make herself subordinate.
"It is come round as I thought, Susan," said Caleb, when they were

seated alone in the evening. He had already narrated the adventure
which had brought about Fred's sharing in his work, but had kept

back the further result. "The children ARE fond of each other--
I mean, Fred and Mary."

Mrs. Garth laid her work on her knee, and fixed her penetrating
eyes anxiously" target="_blank" title="ad.挂念地；渴望地">anxiously on her husband.

"After we'd done our work, Fred poured it all out to me. He can't
bear to be a clergyman, and Mary says she won't have him if he is one;

and the lad would like to be under me and give his mind to business.
And I've determined to take him and make a man of him."

"Caleb!" said Mrs. Garth, in a deep contralto, expressive of
resigned astonishment.

"It's a fine thing to do," said Mr. Garth, settling himself
firmly against the back of his chair, and grasping the elbows.

"I shall have trouble with him, but I think I shall carry
it through. The lad loves Mary, and a true love for a good

woman is a great thing, Susan. It shapes many a rough fellow."
"Has Mary spoken to you on the subject?" said Mrs Garth, secretly a

little hurt that she had to be informed on it herself.
"Not a word. I asked her about Fred once; I gave her a bit of a warning.

But she assured me she would never marry an idle self-indulgent man--
nothing since. But it seems Fred set on Mr. Farebrother to talk to her,

because she had forbidden him to speak himself, and Mr. Farebrother
has found out that she is fond of Fred, but says he must not be

a clergyman. Fred's heart is fixed on Mary, that I can see:
it gives me a good opinion of the lad--and we always liked him, Susan."

"It is a pity for Mary, I think," said Mrs. Garth.
"Why--a pity?"

"Because, Caleb, she might have had a man who is worth twenty
Fred Vincy's."

"Ah?" said Caleb, with surprise.
"I firmly believe that Mr. Farebrother is attached to her,

and meant to make her an offer; but of course, now that Fred has
used him as an envoy, there is an end to that better prospect."

There was a severeprecision in Mrs. Garth's utterance. She was vexed
and disappointed, but she was bent on abstaining from useless words.

Caleb was silent a few moments under a conflict of feelings.
He looked at the floor and moved his head and hands in accompaniment

to some inward argumentation. At last he said--
"That would have made me very proud and happy, Susan, and I

should have been glad for your sake. I've always felt that your
belongings have never been on a level with you. But you took me,

though I was a plain man."
"I took the best and cleverest man I had ever known," said Mrs. Garth,

convinced that SHE would never have loved any one who came
short of that mark.

"Well, perhaps others thought you might have done better.
But it would have been worse for me. And that is what touches me

close about Fred. The lad is good at bottom, and clever enough
to do, if he's put in the right way; and he loves and honors my

daughter beyond anything, and she has given him a sort of promise
according to what he turns out. I say, that young man's soul is

in my hand; and I'll do the best I can for him, so help me God!
It's my duty, Susan."

Mrs. Garth was not given to tears, but there was a large one
rolling down her face before her husband had finished. It came

from the pressure of various feelings, in which there was much
affection and some vexation. She wiped it away quickly, saying--

"Few men besides you would think it a duty to add to their anxieties
in that way, Caleb."

"That signifies nothing--what other men would think. I've got
a clear feeling inside me, and that I shall follow; and I hope

your heart will go with me, Susan, in making everything as light
as can be to Mary, poor child."

Caleb, leaning back in his chair, looked with anxiousappeal towards
his wife. She rose and kissed him, saying, "God bless you, Caleb!

Our children have a good father."
But she went out and had a hearty cry to make up for the suppression

of her words. She felt sure that her husband's conduct would
be misunderstood, and about Fred she was rational and unhopeful.

Which would turn out to have the more foresight in it--her rationality
or Caleb's ardent generosity?

When Fred went to the office the next morning, there was a test
to be gone through which he was not prepared for.

"Now Fred," said Caleb, "you will have some desk-work. I have always
done a good deal of writing myself, but I can't do without help,

and as I want you to understand the accounts and get the values into
your head, I mean to do without another clerk. So you must buckle to.

How are you at writing and arithmetic?"
Fred felt an awkwardmovement of the heart; he had not thought

of desk-work; but he was in a resolute mood, and not going to shrink.
"I'm not afraid of arithmetic, Mr. Garth: it always came easily to me.

I think you know my writing."
"Let us see," said Caleb, taking up a pen, examining it carefully

and handing it, well dipped, to Fred with a sheet of ruled paper.
"Copy me a line or two of that valuation, with the figures at

the end."
At that time the opinion existed that it was beneath a gentleman

to write legibly, or with a hand in the least suitable to a clerk.
Fred wrote the lines demanded in a hand as gentlemanly as that of any

viscount or bishop of the day: the vowels were all alike and the
consonants only distinguishable as turning up or down, the strokes

had a blotted solidity and the letters disdained to keep the line--
in short, it was a manuscript of that venerable kind easy to interpret

when you know beforehand what the writer means.
As Caleb looked on, his visage showed a growing depression,

but when Fred handed him the paper he gave something like a snarl,
and rapped the paper passionately with the back of his hand.