“Well, what was it? I should like to know.”

“My mother was a Miss Chudleigh before her marriage, as you doubtless know, and she lived near Halowell Park, in Devonshire, where Mrs. Richards was once visiting, and it was during that visit that she saved her from drowning.”

66“Whew! Your mother saved my wife from drowning, eh?” cried Mr. Richards, in astonishment, and coloring as he remembered his wife’s indifference upon the topic when he had questioned her about it.

66

“Yes, sir. Now will you please read Mrs. Richards’ reply to my father’s letter, and tell me how you interpret it?”

Star did not care to dwell upon the subject of her obligation, since Mrs. Richards had seen fit to pass it by so lightly.

“I interpret it just as it reads,” he said, after glancing over it; “that she would be very happy to grant your father’s request, do her utmost to make a good and useful woman of you, and follow out his wishes regarding your future education as nearly as she could.”

“Yes, sir, that is the way papa understood it; that is the way I understand it,” Star said, rising and standing erect before him with a gravity that made him wonder what was coming next.

“My father,” she continued, “as you know, was a clergyman with a very limited income, and he conducted my education himself until he became too weak to do so, therefore I am pretty well advanced for one of my years. I have read seven books in Virgil, have read two years in French, and am nearly through trigonometry, and have read a good deal in history. I was studying harmony in music when papa died, besides doing a little in painting and drawing. I do not tell you this,” Star interposed, with a sad smile, “to boast of what I have done, but that you may understand what my feelings are when I tell you why I came here to-night. Papa wished me to keep on with my Latin, reading Horace and Tacitus, with French, music, and history—in fact, he left a written programme for me to follow out as nearly as I was able. I am ambitious myself—I am hungry for knowledge. I want a thorough education, and as I must in the future earn my own living, I know of no way so congenial to my feelings as through literary pursuits. Perhaps 67I made a mistake in appealing to you just now, but I could think of no other way out of my difficulties, for of course I am wholly ignorant of the manners and customs of this country. I mentioned these things to Mrs. 

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