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142 UNOPENED PARCELS. 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' exclaimed 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 repentance-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. How a man of his reasoning powers had missed recognizing the commonplace truths he now heard from me as a hitherto undiscovered consolation, I cannot imagine. Perhapm justice was better satisfied-perhaps his character was ripened more effectually-by the pain he went through: pain and annoyance too. Imagine him, for instance, with his keenly awakened sensitiveness, exposed to being reminded, sometimes jestingly, sometimes seriously,