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foresight."

"That is curious," said I, "it is so easy to be careful."

"For YOU I have no doubt it is. I observed you in your class this
morning, and saw you were closely attentive: your thoughts never
seemed to wander while Miss Miller explained the lesson and questioned
you. Now, mine continually rove away; when I should be listening
to Miss Scatcherd, and collecting all she says with assiduity, often
I lose the very sound of her voice; I fall into a sort of dream.
Sometimes I think I am in Northumberland, and that the noises I
hear round me are the bubbling of a little brook which runs through
Deepden, near our house; -- then, when it comes to my turn to reply,
I have to be awakened; and having heard nothing of what was read
for listening to the visionary brook, I have no answer ready."

"Yet how well you replied this afternoon."

"It was mere chance; the subject on which we had been reading had
interested me. This afternoon, instead of dreaming of Deepden, I
was wondering how a man who wished to do right could act so unjustly
and unwisely as Charles the First sometimes did; and I thought what
a pity it was that, with his integrity and conscientiousness, he
could see no farther than the prerogatives of the crown. If he had
but been able to look to a distance, and see how what they call the
spirit of the age was tending! Still, I like Charles -- I respect
him -- I pity him, poor murdered king! Yes, his enemies were the
worst: they shed blood they had no right to shed. How dared they
kill him!"

Helen was talking to herself now: she had forgotten I could not
very well understand her -- that I was ignorant, or nearly so, of
the subject she discussed. I recalled her to my level.

"And when Miss Temple teaches you, do your thoughts wander then?"

"No, certainly, not often; because Miss Temple has generally something
to say which is newer than my own reflections; her language is
singularly agreeable to me, and the information she communicates
is often just what I wished to gain."

"Well, then, with Miss Temple you are good?"

"Yes, in a passive way: I make no effort; I follow as inclination
guides me. There is no merit in such goodness."

"A great deal: you are good to those who are good to you. It is
all I ever desire to be. If people were always kind and obedient
to those who are cruel and unjust, the wicked people would have
it all their own way: they would never feel afraid, and so they
would never alter, but would grow worse and worse. When we are
struck at without a reason, we should strike back again very hard;
I am sure we should -- so hard as to teach the person who struck
us never to do it again."

"You will change your mind, I hope, when you grow older: as yet
you are but a little untaught girl."

"But I feel this, Helen; I must dislike those who, whatever I do
to please them, persist in disliking me; I must resist those who

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