He was unsmilingly amused at the comments of
mixed shrewdness and crudity which Lemuel was betrayed into at times
beyond certain limits of diffidence that he had apparently set
himself; at his blunders and misconceptions, at the truth divined by
the very innocence of his youth and inexperience. He found out that
Lemuel had not been at home since he came to Boston; he had expected
to go at Thanksgiving, but it came so soon after he had got his
place that he hated to ask; the folks were all well, and he would
send the kind remembrances which the minister asked him to give his
mother. Sewell tried to find out, in saying that Mrs. Sewell and
himself would always be glad to see him, whether Lemuel had any
social life outside of the St. Albans, but here he was sensible that
a door was shut against him; and finally he had not the courage to
do more about that money from Miss Vane than to say that from time
to time he had sums intrusted him, and that if Lemuel had any
pressing need of money he must borrow of him. He fancied he had
managed that rather delicately, for Lemuel thanked him without
severity, and said he should get along now, he guessed, but he was
much obliged. Neither of them mentioned Miss Vane, and upon the
whole the minister was not sure that he had got much nearer the boy,
after all.
Certainly he formed no adequate idea of the avidity and thoroughness
with which Lemuel was learning his Boston.
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