lilac blossoms that
rested above the lustrous puffs of her plenteous gray hair.

The young man looked up from his meditative pacing of the room.

"Aunt Bell, I think I may say that I pleased myself this morning--and
you know that's not easy for me."

"It's too bad Nance wasn't there!"

"Nancy is not pleasing me," began her husband, in gentle tones.

"I didn't feel equal to it, Allan," his wife called from the library.

"Oh, you're there! My dear, you give up too easily to little
indispositions that another woman would make nothing of. I've repeated
that to you so often that, really, your further ignoring it appears
dangerously like perverseness--"

"Is she crying?" he asked Aunt Bell, as they both listened.

"Laughing!" replied that lady.

"My dear, may I ask if you are laughing at me?"

"Dear, no!--only at something I happened to think of." She came into the
dining-room, a morning paper in her hand. "Besides, in to-morrow's paper
I shall read all about what the handsome rector of St. Antipas said, in
his handsome voice, to his handsome hearers--"

He had frowned at first, but now smiled indulgently, as they sat down to
luncheon. "You _will_ have your joke about my appearance, Nance! That
reminds me--that poor romantic little Mrs. Eversley--sister of Mrs.
Wyeth, you know--said to me after service this morning, 'Oh, Dr.
Linford, if I could only believe in Christian dogma as I believe in
_you_ as a man!' You know, she's such a painfully emotional, impulsive
creature, and then Colonel Godwin who stood by had to have _his_ joke:
'The symbol will serve you for worship, Madam!' he says; 'I'm sure no
woman's soul would ever be lost if all clergymen were as good to look
upon as our friend here!' Those things always make me feel so
awkward--they are said so bluntly--but what could I do?"

"Mr. Browett's sister and her son were out with him this morning," began
Aunt Bell, charitably entering another channel of conversation from the
intuition that her niece was wincing. But, as not infrequently happened,
the seeming outlet merely gave again into the main channel.

"And there's Browett," continued the Doctor. "Now I am said to have
great influence over women--women trust me, believe me--I may even say
look up to me--but I pledge you my word I am conscious of wielding an
immensely greater influence over men. There seems to be in my _ego_ the
power to prevail. Take Browett--most men are afraid of him--not physical
fea