h the hall. Opposite her door, Estelle
stooped to lace her slipper, for which purpose she had left the
drawing-room.

"So he has no headache," said Della, "and absents himself only from
aversion to society?"

"That is all," replied Estelle, pettishly. "Isn't he stupid?"

"No, I just begin to think right well of him. I have no respect for some
of those effeminate butterflies down stairs, who say only silly
nothings, because, forsooth, they think we can appreciate nothing
better, or because they have nothing better to offer."

"But I thought you were quite captivated with Edward Damon? You two, for
the last half hour, have seemed to be unconscious that there was aught
else in the world save that one corner that held you."

"Edward Damon is an exception. He is intelligent, unaffected, and
agreeable. He is not all simper and softness. He can talk with one
without being lost in his own self-conceit, fancying you deep in
admiration of his own charming self. Yes, I really like Edward Damon."

The shoe was laced, and the girls passed on, but the voice of Della
Lisle seemed still to linger upon the ears of Philip. His own door
opened upon the hall very near to the waiting girls; he had heard every
word. First, the voice of Della was pleasant and gentle; it powerfully
attracted him; second, her words were not those of an ordinary city
lady.

"A sensible girl, that--Della, Estelle called her; a pretty name. And
Edward Damon is there, it seems, the best fellow I ever knew. Who knows?
Maybe a shoe-string influences my fate. At all events, I am influenced
in a way I may not resist."

And Philip St. Leger, with extraordinary inconsistency, soon appeared
among his mother's guests. There was but one drawback to the joy and
gratification of that mother and the three sisters--his necktie was not
of the very latest style.

CHAPTER VI.

MISSIONARY LIFE.

In falling in love with Della Lisle at first sight, Philip pleased
himself only and his sister Estelle; that is, if we leave Della out. His
mother had the tall, graceful daughter of a millionaire selected for
him; Leonora, the elder sister, had her pet friend Miss De Rosier,
secretly engaged and under promise; Juliet, the younger, wished him
never to fall in love, never to marry, but to remain forever her dear,
only, adorable brother Philip, for whom she would give up all the world
and live a maiden to the end of her life.

This engagement with Della, however, was no