ming in, a
little thrill ran through the family party. The girls looked at each
other when they heard that sound, and Johnnie, without stopping his
inward repetition, shifted himself and his book adroitly, with the
cleverness of practice, to the side instead of the front of the fire.
Reginald's pen stopped its scratching, and he wheeled round on his chair
to give an appealing glance at his sisters.

"What is it now?" he said hurriedly. Every one knew that when the door
was closed like that it meant something like a declaration of war. But
they had not much time to wait and wonder. Mr. May came in, pushing the
door wide open before him, and admitting a gust of chill air of the
January night. He looked at the peaceable domestic scene with a "humph"
of dissatisfaction, because there was nothing to find fault with, which
is as great a grievance as another when one is in the mood for
grievances. He had come in cross and out of sorts, with a private cause
for his ill-temper, which he did not choose to reveal, and it would have
been a relief to him had he found them all chattering or wasting their
time, instead of being occupied in this perfectly dutiful way--even
Johnnie at his lessons, repeating them over under his breath. What was
the world coming to? Mr. May was disappointed. Instead of leading up to
it gradually by a general _battue_ of his children all round, he had to
open upon his chief subject at once, which was not nearly so agreeable a
way.

"What are you doing, Reginald?" he asked, roughly, pulling his chair to
the other side of the fire, opposite the corner to which Johnnie had
scuffled out of the way. "I have come in especially to speak to you. It
is time this shilly-shallying was done with. Do you mean to accept the
College chaplaincy or not? an answer must be given, and that at once.
Are you so busy that you can't attend to what I say?"

"I am not busy at all, sir," said Reginald, in a subdued voice, while
his sisters cast sympathetic looks at him. Both the girls, it is true,
thought him extremely foolish, but what of that? Necessarily they were
on his side against papa.

"I thought as much; indeed it would be hard to say what you could find
to be busy at. But look here, this must come to an end one way or
another. You know my opinion on the subject."

"And you know mine, sir," said Reginald, rising and coming forward to
the fire. "I don't say anything against the old College. For an old man
it might be q