He came up smiling day after day.

'Now, sir, shall we do our French ?' he would say; and I would put questions, and elicit copious commentary and explanation, but never the shadow of an answer.

My hands fell to my sides; I could have wept to hear him.

When I reflected that he had as yet learned nothing, and what a vast deal more there was for him to learn, the period of these lessons seemed to unroll before me vast as eternity, and I saw myself a teacher of a hundred, and Rowley a pupil of ninety, still hammering on the rudiments! The wretched boy, I should say, was quite unspoiled by the inevitable familiarities of the journey.

He turned out at each stage the pink of serving-lads, deft, civil, prompt, attentive, touching his hat like an automaton, raising the status of Mr.Ramornie in the eyes of all the inn by his smiling service, and seeming capable of anything in the world but the one thing I had chosen--learning French!.