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most ready to confess a fault, the one whose word
could be most implicitly relied upon, she would
have named him we have called ‘Tommy,’ the
little rascally ghost-seer of the nursery. ‘And
I hated myself for being such a hypocrite, ex-
claimed my poor friend, after telling me that such
was his mother’s conviction. Can you guess my
answer, Honor? You ought almost to be able,”
said my father. “I told him that what he called
hypocrisy was repentance—the truest of all re-
pentance—not a mere expression of regret, but an
entire change of mind—such an actual dislike of
the old infirmity that the faintest approach to it
had become detestable. Howa man of his reason-
ing powers had missed recognizing the common-
place truths he now heard from me as a hitherto
undiscovered consolation, I cannot imagine. Per-
hans justice was better satisfied—perhaps his
character was ripened more effectually—by the
pain he went through : pain and annoyance tov.
Imagine him, for instance, with his keenly
awakened sensitiveness, exposed to being re-
minded, sometimes jestingly, soinetimes seriously,