We, too, had a sort of friendship, and I conceived that she very much
respected my opinion. In some ways, I had been of service to her. The
old man, her father, had been involved in legal troubles. She was
anxious to understand all about it. So I talked law to her, read law to
her, and marked law for her in my big books, besides giving advice
gratis. She had also taken other books from my library, whenever she
chose. I had lent her pictures to copy, and had shown her the way to
various points, in the country round about, whence a simple view might
easily be taken. Moreover, I was all the same as one of the family, and
felt a brother's interest in David. And, lastly, I was eight or ten
years older than she.
'Twas certainly my right to speak. I could well see, however, that it
was a matter of some delicacy. My superior age and wisdom might shed a
halo around me; still, I was nothing more nor less than a young man, for
all that.
It was one pleasant afternoon in the latter part of September, that,
engaged in these perplexing meditations, I strolled down towards the
shore.
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