"Surely I have seen you before, have I not? Why, of course, I remember. You were at the mission chapel with Mr. Harding's servant, who is a regular attendant on Sunday evenings. I thought I knew your face."
"Fancy your noticing her!" Mr. Harding exclaimed. "You must have a wonderfully good memory for faces, sir."
"Yes, I believe I have," was the response; "but you must remember I have been here for two years, and the countenances of most of the members of my congregation are familiar to me. I generally notice a stranger."
He did not say that he had been struck by Mousey's face because it had been so earnest and attentive, but he looked at the little girl very kindly, noting her mourning dress, and the wistful expression in the soft brown eyes.
"The child lost her mother a little more than a month ago," Mr. Harding explained, "and she's not in her usual spirits—or, at any rate, she's much quieter than most children. However, I'm sending her to school on Monday, and that will be a change for her, and give her plenty to occupy her mind with. Perhaps you know that Dr. Downing's widow has opened a school, sir?"
"Yes," Mr. Bradley answered; "I hope she will make it a success."
"My little cousin is to be one of her pupils this coming term," Mr. Harding went on. "I wish the child to have a good education, and I am informed that Mrs. Downing was a governess before she married, and a clever, competent teacher. It is fortunate for her she can work for her living."
Mr. Bradley agreed that it was very fortunate, and after a little further conversation proceeded on his way, whilst Mousey retired to the kitchen to tell Maria that she was to go to school on the following Monday, and that she had made the acquaintance of the clergyman who preached at the mission chapel.
"I think Mr. Bradley is one of the nicest gentlemen I ever met," said Mousey, whose experience had not been large. "There was a look in his face that reminded me of Uncle Dick, though I don't know how that could be, because Mr. Bradley is rather pale and thin, and Uncle Dick is big, and his cheeks are quite rosy."
"Then they can't be in the least alike," exclaimed Maria, laughing.