You must now give it up, my son--I do not like
to see you perform these menial offices."
"No service performed for my mother can be menial," said Willie,
giving her a fond smile.
"My darling son!"
After breakfast William took up his hat and went out. It was three
hours before he returned. His face was beaming with happiness, as he
held an open letter in his hand.
"See, mother, dear, kind Providence has opened a way for us at last."
"What is it, my son?" said the widow, anxiously.
"Mr. Keene, you know, who left this neighborhood about three years
ago, went to ---- County and established a school, which has succeeded
admirably. He is in want of an assistant, and has written to me,
offering four hundred dollars a year for my services in his
institution."
"And you will have to leave me, William!"
These words escaped the widow, with a deep sigh, and without
reflection. She added in an instant, with assumed cheerfulness:
"Yes, of course--so I would have you do."
A month from this conversation William Dulan was established in his
new home, in the family of Mr. Keene, the principal of Bay Grove
Academy, near Richmond.
The first meeting of William Dulan and Alice Raymond took place under
the following circumstances.
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