Johnson again obeyed--the Weights are always obedient--and Charley of course appropriated the second portion to his own purposes. 'Oh, Charley, that was a fib--now wasn't it? You shouldn't have said it was for a lady.' 'But then I shouldn't have got it.' 'Oh, but that's no reason; according to that everybody might tell a fib whenever they wanted anything.' 'Well, everybody does--everybody except you, Katie.' 'O no,' said Katie--'no they don't--mamma, and Linda, and Gertrude never do; nor Harry Norman, he never does, nor Alaric.' 'No, Harry Norman never does,' said Charley, with something like vexation in his tone. He made no exception to Katie's list of truth-tellers, but he was thinking within himself whether Alaric had a juster right to be in the catalogue than himself. 'Harry Norman never does, certainly. You must not compare me with them, Katie. They are patterns of excellence. I am all the other way, as everybody knows.' He was half laughing as he spoke, but Katie's sharp ear knew that he was more than half in earnest, and she felt she had pained him by what she had said. 'Oh, Charley, I didn't mean that; indeed I did not. I know that in all serious things you are as truthful as they are--and quite as good--that is, in many ways.' Poor Katie! she wanted to console him, she wanted to be kind, and yet she could not be dishonest. 'Quite as good! no, you know I am not.' 'You are as good-hearted, if not better; and you will be as steady, won't you, Charley? I am sure you will; and I know you are more clever, really more clever than either of them.' 'Oh! Katie.' 'I am quite sure you are. I have always said so; don't be angry with me for what I said.' 'Angry with you! I couldn't be angry with you.' 'I wouldn't, for the world, say anything to vex you. I like you better than either of them, though Alaric is my brother-in-law. Of course I do; how could I help it, when you saved my life?' 'Saved your life! Pooh! I didn't save your life. Any boy could have done the same, or any waterman about the place. When you fell in, the person who was nearest you pulled you out, that was all.' There was something almost approaching to ferocity in his voice as he said this; and yet when Katie timidly looked up she saw that he had turned his back to the room, and that his eyes were full of tears. He had felt that he was loved by this child, but that he was loved from a feeling of uncalled-for gratitude. He could not stop to analyse this, to separate the sweet from the bitter; but he knew that the latter prevailed. It is so little flattering to be loved when such love is the offspring of gratitude. And then when that gratitude is unnecessary, when it has been given in mistake for supposed favours, the acceptance of such love is little better than a cheat!