"It will do, I see," said Mr. Laurence, smiling. "You understand."
I was so busy, thinking, I hadn't said a word, but only just gazed up in his face.
[CHAPTER X.]
WISE COUNSEL.
MILES' STORY—(continued).
THE next few days passed smoothly, so far as my work was concerned. Not that I wasn't often clumsy and stupid, doing things awkwardly enough from want of practice; but I tried hard, and Mr. Laurence was wonderfully patient. He saw at least how anxious I was to learn. If I forgot, he told me again, and if I blundered he made me try a second time. He showed me exactly how he liked his books dusted—so many shelves every week, and each shelf by itself, and every volume put back into its own place. He stood by while I did it, over and over again, till he was sure I knew how.
I had not leave to take away books for my own reading, of course, but he lent me one at a time, choosing those I could understand, and he was always pleased if I asked him questions. Sometimes he would come into the museum, and give me quite a lesson on the things there.
It was wonderful how much bigger and wider the world grew as I listened to him. Every day I grew more eager to learn, and more fond of Mr. Laurence, and more bent on serving him rightly.
He did not yet allow me to go alone into the observatory. That was to come later. "A careless touch might do such harm," he said; though he was pleased to add that he did not count me careless. "But it would not be fair yet to you, my boy," he said in his kind way.
The one real trouble in my new life was the way the maids looked askance at me, and most of all the way I was disliked by Mrs. Crane. To be sure, Mr. Laurence did not want me to have much to do with the maids or with the servants' hall, and he told me so plainly; but still I'd rather have been on pleasant terms, and I couldn't think why they must all treat me as if I had no right to be in the house.