The instantaneous illumining of her whole face was
sufficient reply without her low emphatic words,
"'I would be content to study on my knees to know what some women do,
whom I have seen.'
"It is not necessary for me to relate with what pleasure I caught at
the idea that here was a chance to repay in some slight measure the
inestimable favor she had done me; nor by what arguments I finally
won her to accept an education at my hands as some sort of recompense
for the life she had saved. The advantage which it would give her in
her struggle with the world she seemed duly to appreciate, but that so
great a favor could be shown her without causing me much trouble and
an unwarrantable expense, she could not at once be brought to
comprehend, and till she could, she held out with that gentle but
inflexible will of hers. The battle, however, was won at last and I
left her in that little cottage, with the understanding that as soon
as the matter could be arranged, she was to enter a certain
boarding-school in Troy with the mistress of which I was acquainted.
Meanwhile she was to go out to service at Melville and earn enough
money to provide herself with clothes.
"I was a careless fellow in those days but I kept my promise to that
girl. I not only entered her into that school for a course of three
years, but acting through its mistress who had taken a great fancy to
her, supplied her with the necessities her position required.
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