"The world has put you into a humble mood," said Mr. Faringfield, with sarcastic indifference. "Yes, sir; the way of transgressors is hard, sir." "Why don't you sit down?" put in Mrs. Faringfield, who was made uncomfortable by the sight of others being so. "Thank you, mother," said Ned, availing himself of the implied permission. "I hear you've undergone a reformation," said his father. "I hope so, sir. They tell me I've got religion." "Who tells you?" "The Methodists. I went to their meetings in London. I--I thought I needed a little of that kind of thing. That's how I happened to--to save my soul." "And how do you conceive you will provide for your body?" "I don't know yet--exactly. If I might stay here till I could find some employment--" Mr. Faringfield met the pleading look of Fanny, and the prudent one of his wife. The latter reflected, as plainly as words, what had manifestly entered his own mind: that immunity from future trouble on Ned's account might indeed be had without recourse to a step entailing public disgrace upon the family. So he said: "My intention was, if you should ever show your face in New York again, to see you punished for that matter of the money and Mr. Palmer. I don't give up that intention; I shall only postpone carrying it out, during your good behaviour." "Thank you, sir; I dare say it's better than I deserve." And so was Mr. Ned established home again, to be provided for by his father until he should obtain some means of self-support. In this task his father offered no assistance, being cautious against vouching for a person hitherto so untrustworthy; and it soon became evident that Ned was not very vigorously prosecuting the task himself. He had the excuse that it was a bad time for the purpose, the country being so unsettled in the expectation of continued war. And he was content to remain an idle charge upon his father's bounty, a somewhat neglected inmate of the house, his comings and goings not watched or inquired into. His father rarely had a word for him but of curt and formal greeting. His mother found little more to say to him, and that in a shy reserved manner. Margaret gave him no speeches, but sometimes a look of careless derision and contempt, which must have caused him often to grind his teeth behind his mask of humility. Philip's courtesy to him was distinctly chilly; while Tom treated him rather with the indifferent amiability of a new and not very close acquaintance, than with any revival of old brotherly familiarity. I shared Phil's doubts upon Ned's spiritual regeneration, and many people in the town were equally skeptical. But there were enough of those credulous folk that delight in the miraculous, who believed fully in this marvellous conversion, and never tired of discussing the wonder. And so Ned went about, posing as a brand snatched from the burning, to the amusement of one-half the town, the admiration of the other half, and the curiosity of both.