William felt it was something, Mr. Ashley's recognizing a difference between him and those black boys in the manufactory: they would scarcely have been told to sit in the hall. William sat down on the first chair at hand. Henry Ashley looked at him, and he recognized him as the boy who had been maltreated by the college boys on the previous day; but Henry was in no mood to be sociable, or even condescending--he never was, when over his lessons. His hip was giving him pain, and his exercise was making him fractious. "There! it's always the case! Another five minutes, and I should have finished this horrid exercise. Papa is sure to go away, or be called away, when he's helping me! It's a shame." Mrs. Ashley opened the door at this juncture, and looked into the room. "I thought your papa was here, Henry." "No, he is not here. He has gone to his study, and I am stuck fast. Some blessed note has come, which he has to attend to: and I don't know whether this word should be put in the ablative or the dative! I'll run the pen through it!" "Oh, Henry, Henry! Do not be so impatient." Mrs. Ashley shut the door again; and Henry continued to worry himself, making no progress, except in fretfulness. At length William approached him. "Will you let me help you?" Surprise brought Henry's grumbling to a standstill. "You!" he exclaimed. "Do you know anything of Latin?" "I am very much farther in it than what you are doing. My brother Gar is as far as that. Shall I help you? You have put that wrong; it ought to be in the accusative." "Well, if you can help me, you may, for I want to get it over," said Henry, with a doubting stress upon the "can." "You can sit down, if you wish to," he patronizingly added. "Thank you, I don't care about sitting down," replied William, beginning at once upon his task. The two boys were soon deep in the exercise, William not doing it, but rendering it easy to Henry; in the same manner that Mr. Halliburton, when he was at that stage, used to make it clear to him. "I say," cried Henry, "who taught you?" "Papa. He gave a great deal of time to me, and that got me on. I can see a wrong word there," added William, casting his eyes to the top of the page. "It ought to be in the vocative, and you have put it in the dative." "You are mistaken, then. Papa told me that: and he is not likely to be wrong. Papa is one of the best classical scholars of the day--although he is a manufacturer," added Henry, who, through his relatives, the Dares, had been infected with a contempt for business. "It should be in the vocative," repeated William. "I shan't alter it. The idea of your finding fault with Mr. Ashley's Latin! Let us get on. What case is this?" The last word of the exercise was being written, when Mr. Ashley opened the door and called to William. He gave him a note for Mr. Lynn, and William departed. Mr. Ashley returned to complete the interrupted exercise. "I say, papa, that fellow knows Latin," began Henry.