The boy lifted the latch he had lifted before, and found his sister again seated before the fire at her work. Who raised her head upon his coming in and asking:

“Where did you go, Liz?”

“I went out in the dark.”

“There was no necessity for that. It was all right enough.”

“One of the gentlemen, the one who didn’t speak while I was there, looked hard at me. And I was afraid he might know what my face meant. But there! Don’t mind me, Charley! I was all in a tremble of another sort when you owned to father you could write a little.”

“Ah! But I made believe I wrote so badly, as that it was odds if anyone could read it. And when I wrote slowest and smeared but with my finger most, father was best pleased, as he stood looking over me.”