"How helping him on?" asked Biddy, with a steady sort of glance.

"Well! Joe is a dear good fellow,--in fact, I think he is the dearest

fellow that ever lived,--but he is rather backward in some things. For

instance, Biddy, in his learning and his manners."

Although I was looking at Biddy as I spoke, and although she opened her

eyes very wide when I had spoken, she did not look at me.

"O, his manners! won't his manners do then?" asked Biddy, plucking a

black-currant leaf.

"My dear Biddy, they do very well here--"

"O! they do very well here?" interrupted Biddy, looking closely at the

leaf in her hand.

"Hear me out,--but if I were to remove Joe into a higher sphere, as I

shall hope to remove him when I fully come into my property, they would

hardly do him justice."

"And don't you think he knows that?" asked Biddy.

It was such a very provoking question (for it had never in the most

distant manner occurred to me), that I said, snappishly,-"Biddy, what do you mean?"

Biddy, having rubbed the leaf to pieces between her hands,--and the

smell of a black-currant bush has ever since recalled to me that evening

in the little garden by the side of the lane,--said, "Have you never

considered that he may be proud?"

"Proud?" I repeated, with disdainful emphasis.

"O! there are many kinds of pride," said Biddy, looking full at me and

shaking her head; "pride is not all of one kind--"

"Well? What are you stopping for?" said I.

"Not all of one kind," resumed Biddy. "He may be too proud to let any

one take him out of a place that he is competent to fill, and fills well

and with respect. To tell you the truth, I think he is; though it sounds

bold in me to say so, for you must know him far better than I do."

"Now, Biddy," said I, "I am very sorry to see this in you. I did not

expect to see this in you. You are envious, Biddy, and grudging. You

are dissatisfied on account of my rise in fortune, and you can't help

showing it."

"If you have the heart to think so," returned Biddy, "say so. Say so

over and over again, if you have the heart to think so."

"If you have the heart to be so, you mean, Biddy," said I, in a virtuous

and superior tone; "don't put it off upon me. I am very sorry to see it,

and it's a--it's a bad side of human nature. I did intend to ask you

to use any little opportunities you might have after I was gone, of

improving dear Joe. But after this I ask you nothing. I am extremely

sorry to see this in you, Biddy," I repeated. "It's a--it's a bad side

of human nature."




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