ous spirits out of Phillis. She did not speak now,
but looked out of the open casement at the calm large moon, slowly
moving through the twilight sky. Once I thought her eyes were filling
with tears; but, if so, she shook them off, and arose with alacrity
when her mother, tired and dispirited, proposed to go to bed
immediately after prayers. We all said good-night in our separate ways
to the minister, who still sate at the table with the great Bible open
before him, not much looking up at any of our salutations, but
returning them kindly. But when I, last of all, was on the point of
leaving the room, he said, still scarcely looking up,--

'Paul, you will oblige me by staying here a few minutes. I would fain
have some talk with you.'

I knew what was coming, all in a moment. I carefully shut--to the door,
put out my candle, and sate down to my fate. He seemed to find some
difficulty in beginning, for, if I had not heard that he wanted to
speak to me, I should never have guessed it, he seemed so much absorbed
in reading a chapter to the end. Suddenly he lifted his head up and
said,--

'It is about that friend of yours, Holdsworth! Paul, have you any
reason for thinking he has played tricks upon Phillis?' I saw that his
eyes were blazing with such a fire of anger at the bare idea, that I
lost all my presence of mind, and only repeated,--

'Played tricks on Phillis!'

'Ay! you know what I mean: made love to her, courted her, made her
think that he loved her, and then gone away and left her. Put it as you
will, only give me an answer of some kind or another--a true answer, I
mean--and don't repeat my words, Paul.'

He was shaking all over as he said this. I did not delay a moment in
answering him,--

'I do not believe that Edward Holdsworth ever played tricks on Phillis,
ever made love to her; he never, to my knowledge, made her believe that
he loved her.'

I stopped; I wanted to nerve up my courage for a confession, yet I
wished to save the secret of Phillis's love for Holdsworth as much as I
could; that secret which she had so striven to keep sacred and safe;
and I had need of some reflection before I went on with what I had to
say.

He began again before I had quite arranged my manner of speech. It was
almost as if to himself,--'She is my only child; my little daughter!
She is hardly out of childhood; I have thought to gather her under my
wings for years to come her mother and I would lay down our lives to
ke