Then I saw, that, in my eagerness to glorify my friend, I had made myself unpleasant to Roger,--a fault of which I had been dimly conscious before now. Marion would never have fallen into that error. She always made her friends feel that she was _with_ them, side by side with them, and turning her face in the same direction, before she attempted to lead them farther. I assured him that he had not offended me, but that I had been foolishly backing him from the front, as I once heard an Irishman say,--some of whose bulls were very good milch cows. "She teaches them every Sunday evening," I added. "Have you ever heard her?" "More than once. And I never heard any thing like it." "Could you take me with you some time?" he asked, in an assumed tone of ordinary interest, out of which, however, he could not keep a slight tremble. "I don't know. I don't quite see why I shouldn't. And yet"-- "Men do go," urged Roger, as if it were a mere half-indifferent suggestion. "Oh, yes! you would have plenty to keep you in countenance!" I returned,--"men enough--and worth teaching, too--some of them at least!" "Then, I don't see why she should object to me for another." "I don't know that she would. You are not exactly of the sort, you know--that"-- "I don't see the difference. I see no essential difference, at least. The main thing is, that I am in want of teaching, as much as any of them. And, if she stands on circumstances, I am a working-man as much as any of them--perhaps more than most of them. Few of them work after midnight, I should think, as I do, not unfrequently." "Still, all admitted, I should hardly like"-- "I didn't mean you were to take me without asking her," he said: "I should never have dreamed of that." "And if I were to ask her, I am certain she would refuse. But," I added, thinking over the matter a little, "I will take you without asking her. Come with me to-morrow night. I don't think she will have the heart to send you away." "I will," he answered, with more gladness in his voice than he intended, I think, to manifest itself. We arranged that he should call for me at a certain hour. I told Percivale, and he pretended to grumble that I was taking Roger instead of him. "It was Roger, and not you, that made the request," I returned. "I can't say I see why you should go because Roger asked. A woman's logic is not equal to that." "I didn't mean he wasn't to go. But why shouldn't I be done good to as well as he?" "If you really want to go," I said, "I don't see why you shouldn't. It's ever so much better than going to any church I know of--except one. But we must be prudent. I can't take more than one the first time. We must get the thin edge of the wedge in first." "And you count Roger the thin edge?" "Yes." "I'll tell him so." "Do. The thin edge, mind, without which the thicker the rest is the more useless! Tell him that if you like. But, seriously, I quite expect to take you there, too, the Sunday after."