"
"Oh, not at all. It's all right now. I couldn't explain very well
that I hadn't come to the city just to be in the city, but because I
had to do something to help along at home. You didn't seem to
understand that there wa'n't anything there for me to take hold of."
"No, I'm afraid I didn't, or wouldn't quite understand that; I was
talking and acting, I'm afraid, from a preconceived notion." Lemuel
made no reply, not having learned yet to utter the pleasant
generalities with which city people left a subject; and after a
while Sewell added, "I am glad to have seen your face so often at
church. You have been a great deal in my mind, and I have wished to
do something to make your life happy, and useful to you in the best
way, here, but I haven't quite known how." At this point Sewell
realised that it was nearly eight months since Lemuel had come to
Boston, and he said contritely, "I have not made the proper effort,
I'm afraid; but I did not know exactly how to approach you. You were
rather a difficult subject," he continued, with a smile in which
Lemuel consented to join, "but now that we've come to a clearer
understanding--" He broke off and asked, "Have you many
acquaintances in Boston?"
Lemuel hesitated, and cleared his throat, "Not many."
Something in his manner prompted the minister to say, "That is such
a very important thing for young men in a strange place.
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