sore pang that her pride was laid low in the dust, and that she could
not hope now that her daughters would make splendid matches: even Dick
would be above them, though his father had been in trade, and though
he had no grandfather worth mentioning.

A few days after their return from Hadleigh, there was an other long
business interview with Mr. Trinder, in which every thing was settled.
A tenant had already been found for the cottage. A young couple, on
the eve of their marriage, who had long been looking for a suitable
house in the neighborhood had closed at once with Mr. Trinder's offer,
and had taken the lease off their hands. The gentleman was a cousin of
the Paines and, partly for the convenience of the in-coming tenants,
and partly because the Challoners wished to move as soon as possible,
there was only a delay of a few weeks before the actual flitting.

It would be impossible to describe the dismay of the neighborhood when
the news was circulated.

Immediately after their return from Hadleigh, Nan and Phillis took
counsel together, and, summoning up their courage, went from one to
another of their friends and quietly announced their approaching
departure.

"Mother has had losses, and we are now dreadfully poor, and we are
going to leave Glen Cottage and go down to a small house we have at
Hadleigh," said Nan, who by virtue of an additional year of age was
spokeswoman on this occasion. She had fully rehearsed this little
speech, which she intended to say at every house in due rotation. "We
will not disguise the truth; we will let people know that we are poor,
and then they will not expect impossibilities," she said, as they
walked down the shady roads towards the Paines' house,--for the Paines
were their most intimate friends and had a claim to the first
confidence.

"I think that will be sufficient; no one has any right to know more,"
she continued, decidedly, fully determined that no amount of coaxing
and cross-examination should wring from her one unnecessary word.

But she little knew how difficult it would be to keep their own
counsel. The Paines were not alone: they very seldom were. Adelaide
Sartoris was there, and the younger Miss Twentyman, and a young widow,
a Mrs. Forbes, who was a distant connection of Mrs. Paine.

Nan was convinced that they had all been talking about them, for there
was rather an embarrassed pause as she and Phillis entered the room.
Carrie looked a little confused as she