should say to her about their new neighbors.
"Writing is such a nuisance when one wants to talk to a person," he
thought, irritably.

"Oh, Archie, won't you tell me what we are to do?" went on Mattie,
excitedly. She would not take Archie's silence as a hint that he
wanted to keep his thoughts to himself. "Those poor girls! oh, how
nice and pretty they all are, especially the eldest! and is not the
youngest--Dulce, I think they called her--the very image of Isabel?"

"Isabel! not a bit. That is so like you, Mattie. You always see
likenesses when other people cannot trace the faintest resemblance,"
for this remark was sure to draw out his opposition. Isabel was a
silly flirting little thing in her brother's estimation, and, he
thought, could not hold a candle to the youngest Miss Challoner.

"Oh dear! now I have made you cross!" sighed poor Mattie, who
especially wanted to keep him in good humor. "And yet every one but
you thinks Isabel so pretty. I am sure, from what Grace said in her
last letter, that Mr. Ellis Burton means to propose to her."

"And I suppose you will all consider that a catch," sneered Archie.
"That is so like a parcel of women, thinking every man who comes to
the house and makes a few smooth-tongued speeches--is, in fact,
civil--must be after a girl. Of course you have all helped to instill
this nonsense into the child's head."

"Dear me, how you talk, Archie!" returned Mattie, feeling herself
snubbed as usual. Why, Archie had been quite excited about it only the
other day, and had said quite seriously that with seven girls in a
family, it would be a great blessing if Isabel could make such a
match; for it was very unlikely that Laura and Susie, or even Clara,
would do much for themselves in that way, unless they decidedly
improved in looks.

"Well, it is nothing to me," he returned in a chilling manner; "we all
know our own mind best. If an angular lantern-jawed fellow like
Burton, who, by the bye, does not speak the best English, is to
Isabel's taste, let her have him by all means: he is well-to-do, and I
dare say will keep a carriage for her by and by: that is what you
women think a great advantage," finished Archie, who certainly seemed
bent on making himself disagreeable.

Mattie heaved another great sigh, but she did not dare to contradict
him. Grace would have punished him on the spot by a dose of satire
that would have brought him to reason and good nature in a moment; but
Mattie vent