"Why, I learned it." Then, divining that his words were still
unconvincing, he added: "Same as I learned German and other
things with father, out of books, you know. Didn't you learn
French when you were a little boy?"

"Humph!" vouchsafed Simeon Holly, stalking away without answering
the question.

Immediately after dinner Perry Larson drove away with the woman
and the little boy. The woman's face was wreathed with smiles,
and her last adoring glance was for David, waving his hand to her
from the porch steps.

In the afternoon David took his violin and went off toward the
hill behind the house for a walk. He had asked Mrs. Holly to
accompany him, but she had refused, though she was not sweeping
or dusting at the time. She was doing nothing more important,
apparently, than making holes in a piece of white cloth, and
sewing them up again with a needle and thread.

David had then asked Mr. Holly to go; but his refusal was even
more strangely impatient than his wife's had been.

"And why, pray, should I go for a useless walk now--or any time,
for that matter?" he demanded sharply.

David had shrunk back unconsciously, though he had still smiled.

"Oh, but it wouldn't be a useless walk, sir. Father said nothing