“It is situated only two blocks away,” pursued Marcus.

“Capital!” cried Mr. Minford; “for then she will never be far from home.”

“And if you want me at any time, pa, you can send for me, and I can be here in a moment,” said Pet.  “It will be so delightful!”

“It is a private school, and, if your daughter prefers, she can be taught separately from the other pupils.  Miss Pillbody, the teacher, tells me that she can give her an hour and a half in the morning, before ten o’clock, and half an hour in the afternoon, after four o’clock.”

“That will suit me exactly, pa,” cried Pet, clapping her hands with glee; “because then I can get your breakfast, dinner, and supper, and do all the housework, without any interruption in my studies.”

“Miss Pillbody thought the arrangement would suit you.  She is a perfectly competent teacher of French, Italian, the English branches, music, drawing, the dead languages, and higher mathematics—­quite a prodigy, I assure you, for a lady not yet twenty-two years old.” (Marcus was addressing the father.) “I have been particular in my inquiries, and all who know her speak in the highest terms of her remarkable attainments, her ability to teach others, and her goodness of heart.  Your daughter will like her, without doubt.”

“I know I shall,” said Pet, with enthusiasm.  “There are so many things that I will learn, pa.  First, music—­”

“She has a fine piano, and plays splendidly,” remarked the guest.  “I heard her.”

“And French and Italian, to please you, pa—­that is, if I can learn them—­and everything else that the lady will teach me.  I shall be so happy, sir.”

The father and the guest smiled at the zeal with which this young beginner proposed to grapple with the difficulties of human knowledge.  It was fortunate for her that a long series of hard and injudicious teachers had not already sickened her of learning, and that she brought a fresh and uncorrupted taste to the work.

Pet was thinking which one of her two dresses (equally faded) she should wear to school, and what bit of ribbon or trimming she could introduce in her old bonnet, to improve its general effect.  Marcus Wilkeson was marvelling at the confidence which the inventor and his daughter placed in him, and at what there was about him to inspire it.  Mr. Minford was congratulating himself on having met with a man so generous and sincere as this Mr. Wilkeson, and so entirely disinterested, too:  “For,” reasoned the inventor, “he cannot appreciate, as I do, the enormous value of my discovery, and does not dream that his portion of it will compensate him for his outlay more than a hundred times over.”

The silence was broken by a sound as of heavy boots trying to move softly on the stairs, and a subsequent modest rap at the door.

CHAPTER III.

AN AUXILIARY OF MODERN CIVILIZATION.