He pursued his conversation with her eagerly, seeking to discover the secret of her style, to trace back the poetry from its flower to its root.

It was an astonishment to Mercy to find herself talking about her own verses with this stranger whom she so reverenced.

But she felt at once as if she had sat at his feet all her life, and had no right to withhold any thing from her master.
"I suppose, Mrs.Philbrick, you have read the earlier English poets a great deal, have you not ?" he said.

"I infer so from the style of some of your poems." "Oh, no!" exclaimed Mercy, in honest vehemence.

"I have read hardly any thing, Mr.Dorrance.I know Herbert a little; but most of the old English poets I have never even seen.