the end bring him back, rather than of departure.  It was as if he were about to circumnavigate life itself.  Suddenly, however, his forehead contracted.  Material matters began to irritate him.  He thought of Maria, and how slight a provision he had made for her.  His life was already insured for the benefit of Ida.  Ida would have that and her widow’s share.  Little Evelyn would also have her share of his tiny estate, which consisted of nothing more than his house and lot in Edgham and a few hundreds in the bank, and poor Maria would have nothing except the paltry third remaining.  When Maria, sitting alone with him in the parlor, announced her intention of fitting herself for a teacher, he viewed her with quick interest.  It was the evening of the very day on which he had consulted the specialist.

“Let me see, dear,” he returned; “how many years more have you at the academy?”

“I can graduate next year,” Maria replied, with pride.  This last year she had been taking enormous strides, which had placed her ahead of her class.  “At least, I can if I work hard,” she added.

“I don’t want you to work too hard,” Harry said, anxiously.

“I am perfectly well,” said Maria.  And she did in reality look entirely well, in spite of her thinness and expression of premature maturity.  There was a wiriness about her every movement which argued, if not actual robustness, the elasticity of bending and not breaking before the stresses of life.

“Let me see, you will be pretty young to teach, then,” said Harry.

“I think I can get a school,” Maria said.

“Where?”

“Aunt Maria said she thought I could get that little school near her in Amity.  The teacher is engaged, and she said she thought she would get married before so very long.  She said she thought she must have almost enough money for her wedding outfit.  That is what she has been working for.”

Harry smiled a little.

“Aunt Maria said she was to marry a man with means, and she was working quite a while in order to buy a nice trousseau,” said Maria.  “Aunt Maria said she was a very high-spirited young lady.  But she said she thought she had been engaged so long that she would probably not wait more than a year longer, and she could get the school for me.  Uncle Henry is one of the committee, you know.”

“You are pretty young to begin teaching,” Harry said, thoughtfully.

“Aunt Maria said she thought I did not look as young as I really was, and there wouldn’t be any difficulty about it,” said Maria.  “She said she thought I would have good government, and Uncle Henry thought so, too, and Aunt Eunice.”

Aunt Eunice was Maria’s Uncle Henry’s wife.  Maria had paid a visit to Amity the summer before, renewing her acquaintance with her relatives.

“Well, we will see,” said Harry, after a pause.  Then he added, somewhat pitifully:  “Father wishes there was no need for his little girl to work.  He wishes he had been able to put more by, but if—­”