Mrs. Roberts wished that he had left her to introduce herself, or that
he had said almost anything rather than what he did; the mischievous
gleam in several pairs of eyes said that they meant to show her
something that they considered far more interesting than that.

Many were the sympathetic glances that were bestowed on the young and
pretty lady as she went to her task. As for Alfred Ried, there was more
than sympathy in his face. He was vexed with the young volunteer and
vexed with himself.

He told himself savagely that this was what came of his silly habit of
thinking aloud. If only he had kept his anxieties about that class to
himself, Mrs. Roberts would never have heard of it, and been tempted to
put herself in such a ridiculous position; and if this episode did not
break him of the habit, he did not know what would.

He was presently, however, given a class of small boys, with enough of
original and acquired depravity about them to keep him intensely
employed, and the entire school settled to work.




CHAPTER II.

"WHAT DID IT ALL AMOUNT TO, ANYHOW?"


Settled, that is, so far as the class of boys in the corner would permit