Mary, looking into his face, as if the remembrance of it must bring
cheerfulness and refreshment.

'And when shall I not think, Mary! When I leave off work, I shall
want you for a companion; when I go to work, the thought must stir me
up. Your judgment must try my own.'

'Oh, hush, Louis! this is not good. Be yourself, and be more than
yourself, and only think of the past as a time when we had a great
deal of pleasantness, and you did me much good.'

'Did I?'

'Yes; I see it now I am with Aunt Melicent. You put so many more
thoughts in my head, and showed me that so much more was good and
wholesome than I used to fancy. Dear mamma once said you were
educating me; and I hope to go on, and not let your lessons waste
away.'

'Nay, Mary, you won good everywhere. If you had not been Mary, I
might have made you a great goose. But you taught me all the
perseverance I ever had. And oh! Mary, I don't wonder you do not
trust it.'

'There is the forbidden subject,' said Mary, firmly.

That was the sort of conversation into which they fell now and then
during those last days of busy sadness.

Truly it could have been worse. Suffering by their own fault would