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"Precisely—you have given even a better comment, than Trim's on the fifth commandment, upon my opinion—ha, ha, ha! you are a good girl, a very good girl, I will teach you German next year, you shall read Goëthe and Gesner some time, that you shall, Maria."

Mr. Elderton's mother was a German; as a merchant, his connections lay principally in that country, to which he had long made annual visits, and for which he was thought to have an over-weening partiality. Maria had learnt sufficient of these circumstances, to make her aware, that, in his opinion, the praise given was high, and the offer made valuable, and she was at that happy age when all such offers are literally construed; she thanked him eagerly and warmly—placing, as she spoke, both her hands in his, by way of sealing the contract, as well as claiming the promise; for she conceived, though she could not define it, an idea that she was to fulfil her own duties according to her own sense of them, and to be rewarded by the friendship, and the instruction of Mr. Elderton.