"I will come to the point at once," said Miss Parrott, with dignified
precision, as he sat beside her, and she drew herself up stiffer yet, in
the pleasing confidence that what she was about to say would strike both of
her hearers as the most proper thing to do. "You have taken this little
girl, I hear, to educate and bring up."
"For a time," said the minister, hurriedly.
"Very true, for a period of time," said Miss Parrott throwing her
black-figured lace veil, worn by her mother before her, away from her face.
"Well, now, Pastor, it is not appropriate for you to do this work, with
your hands already overburdened. Neither should you bear the expense----"
"But I don't," cried Parson Henderson, guilty now of interrupting. "Mr.
King pays me, and well, for teaching the little girl until she will be
ready for the district school. You see, she has never been in a schoolroom
in her life, and it would be cruel to put her with children of her own age,
when she is so ignorant. But she is singularly bright, and I have the
greatest hopes of her, madam, for she is far above and beyond most children
in many ways."
But Miss Parrott hadn't come to hear all this, so she gave a stately bow.
"No doubt, Pastor, but I must say what is on my mind. It is that I have for
some time wanted to do a bit of charity like this, and Providence now seems
to point the way for it.
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