"That is curious," said I，"it is so easy to be careful."

"For you I have no doubt it is. I observed you in your class this morning，and saw you were closely attentive: your thoughts never seemed to wander while Miss Miller explained the lesson and questioned you. Now，mine continually rove away; when I should be listening to Miss Scatcherd，and collecting all she says with assiduity，often I lose the very sound of her voice; I fall into a sort of dream.

Sometimes I think I am in Northumberland，and that the noises I hear round me are the bubbling of a little brook which runs through Deepden，near our house;- then，when it es to my turn to reply，I have to be awakened; and having heard nothing of what was read for listening to the visionary brook，I have no answer ready."

"Yet how well you replied this afternoon."

"It was mere chance; the subject on which we had been reading had interested me. This afternoon，instead of dreaming of Deepden，I was wondering how a man who wished to do right could act so unjustly and unwisely as Charles the First sometimes did; and I thought what a pity it was that，with his integrity and conscientiousness，he could see no farther than the prerogatives of the crown. If he had but been able to look to a distance，and see how what they call the spirit of the age was tending! Still，I like Charles- I respect him- I pity him，poor murdered king! Yes，his enemies were the worst: they shed blood they had no right to shed. How dared they kill him!"

Helen was talking to herself now: she had forgotten I could not very well understand her- that I was ignorant，or nearly so，of the subject she discussed. I recalled her to my level.