And when he had gone, she would return to her books with a keener zest and fresh store of energy.
She knew her Browning, but it had never sunk into her that it was an awkward thing to play with souls.

As her interest in Martin increased, the remodelling of his life became a passion with her.
"There is Mr.Butler," she said one afternoon, when grammar and arithmetic and poetry had been put aside.
"He had comparatively no advantages at first.

His father had been a bank cashier, but he lingered for years, dying of consumption in Arizona, so that when he was dead, Mr.Butler, Charles Butler he was called, found himself alone in the world.

His father had come from Australia, you know, and so he had no relatives in California.

He went to work in a printing-office,--I have heard him tell of it many times,--and he got three dollars a week, at first.