Fanny did not look up. If she had done so, the gaze fixed upon her
would have sent a deeper crimson to her cheek than flushed it a few
moments before.

"Have you any skill in reading character, Fanny?" asked Mr. Allison,
in a changed and rather animated voice, and with a manner that took
away the constraint that had, from the first, oppressed the mind of
the young girl.

"No very great skill, I imagine," was the smiling answer.

"It is a rare, but valuable gift," said the old man. "I was about to
call it an art; but it is more a gift than an art; for, if not
possessed by nature, it is too rarely acquired. Yet, in all pure
minds, there is something that we may call analogous--a perception
of moral qualities in those who approach us. Have you never felt an
instinctive repugnance to a person on first meeting him?"

"Oh, yes."

"And been as strongly attracted in other cases?"

"Often."

"Have you ever compared this impression with your subsequent
knowledge of the person's character?"

Fanny thought for a little while, and then said--

"I am not sure that I have, Mr. Allison."