"I will accept her kindness with the greatest pleasure, as I happen to be less engaged than usual."
Davy never bent his duty to his pleasure,—rather the reverse.
"I went to practise with Miss Benette the day before yesterday."
"So she told me."
"She told you herself?"
"Yes, when she came to my house for her lesson last afternoon. I was very glad to hear it, because such singing as hers will improve yours. But I should like to tell your mother how she is connected with me."
"How was it, sir?"
"Oh! I shall make a long story for her; but enough for you that her father was very good to me when I was an orphan boy and begged my way through Germany. He taught me all that I now teach you; and when he died, he asked me to take care of his baby and his lessons. She was only born that he might see her, and die."
"Oh, sir, how strange! Poor man! he must have been very sorry."
"He was not sorry to go, for he loved his wife, and she went first."