"No, he is a good provider. It's only these nonsense maggots he gets in his head. Now, attend and see me make the pudding, and ye 'll know how yourself. Book-learning is a fine thing, but it's not all the learning worth knowing. It's fine to be a good cook, specially if you have a man to manage." "Yon man," as Marion usually designated her employer, did not make his appearance in the kitchen so often, now that it was under the rule of Mrs. Campbell. In truth, he was a good deal afraid of the Scotch woman, having come off second best in more than one encounter. He would hardly have borne so much from any other servant, but Marion was, as I have said, a superlative cook, and Mr. Ferrand was fond of dinner company and liked to have a good and elegant table. Rhoda, on the contrary, was no favourite with her employer. Mr. Ferrand had a great horror of feminine independence in any shape, and he felt quite sure that Rhoda had, as he said, "ideas of her own." He strongly suspected that she continued her studies in spite of his disapproval, and it was a real annoyance to him that a servant-girl should love study for its own sake, while his daughter hated it. He watched Rhoda closely, but as yet he had been unable to detect any flaw in her conduct. She was neat and systematic in her work, and always respectful in her manners, though there was sometimes a twinkle in her eye and a movement of the muscles round her mouth which annoyed Mr. Ferrand. She was especially apt in waiting on the table, and never interrupted his disquisitions with the noise of clashing plates or dropped silver. She never asked to go out in the evening, except now and then to go to church, and on these occasions she was at home so promptly that it was plain she went nowhere else. There was no fault to be found. Mrs. Ferrand was satisfied, and Mr. Ferrand could not discover any pretext for quarrelling with Rhoda. Rhoda, on her part, was not satisfied with herself; though, thanks to Marion, she had more leisure than ever for her books, and was making very fair progress with her studies. There was all the time a little rankling thorn in her conscience. She knew she was helping Isa to deceive her father, and no sophistry of her own or Marion's would make deceit seem right to Aunt Hannah's pupil. Nor was this all: her Bible was neglected from evening to evening while she pored over her mathematics; her prayers were shortened for the same reason; and when she did pray, her devotions were cold and lifeless, or else a mere discomfort. Even her visits to "The Home" and to Miss Brown were few and far between. "We don't see you very often now-a-days," said Miss Wilkins, one day. "I am so busy," answered Rhoda. "I hardly go out at all." "I thought you would have more time, now that there is a cook in the family," remarked Miss Brown.