ty on their return, she went out to walk, and was deliberating whither to direct her steps, when she met her friend Mr. Lloyd. "Ah, Jane," said he, "I just came on an errand from my saucy little girl: she has succeeded for the first time to-day in hitching words together, so as to make quite an intelligible sentence; and she is so much elated, that she has bid me tell thee she cannot go to sleep till "dear Jane" has heard her read."
Jane replied, she "should be glad to hear her;" but with none of the animation with which she usually entered into the pleasures of her little friend. Mr. Lloyd was disappointed; but he thought she had been suffering some domestic vexation, and they walked on silently.
After a few moments he said, "Quaker as I am, I do not like a silent meeting;—though I should be used to it, for, except that I must answer the questions of my Rebecca, and am expected by thy friend Mary to reply to her praises of thee, I have not much more occasion for the gift of speech, than the brothers of La Trappe."
"You forget," replied Jane, who felt her silence gently reproached, "that besides all the use you have for that precious faculty, in persuading the stupid and the obstinate to adopt your benevolent plans of reform, you sometimes condescend to employ it in behalf of a very humble young friend."
"But that young friend must lay aside her humility so far, as to flatter me with the appearance of listening."
