y the sun's richness. "Oh, if they should spoil it!"
thought Mattie, with a sigh, as the magnitude of her intended
sacrifice weighed heavily upon her mind.

"It is sheer girlish nonsense,--I might say foolery; and the mother
must be a perfect idiot!" began the colonel, angrily.

He was an excitable man; and his wrath at the intelligence was really
very great. He had taken a fancy to the new-comers, and was prepared
to welcome them heartily in his genial way; but now his old-fashioned
prejudices were grievously wounded. It was against his nice code of
honor that women should do anything out of the usual beaten groove:
innovations that would make them conspicuous were heinous sins in his
eyes.

"Come, Mattie, you and I will have a chat about this by ourselves,"
observed Elizabeth, cheerfully, as she noticed her father's vexation.
He would soon cool down if left to himself: she knew that well.
"Suppose we go down to Miss Milner, and hear what she has to say: you
may depend upon it that it was this that made her so reserved with us
the other day."

"Oh, do you think so?" exclaimed Mattie; but she was charmed at the
idea of fresh gossip. And then they set off together.

Miss Milner seemed a little surprised to see them so soon, for Mattie
had already paid her a visit that day; but at Miss Middleton's first
words a look of annoyance passed over her good-natured face.

"Dear, dear! to think of that leaking out already," she said, in a
vexed voice; "and I have not spoken to a soul, because the young
ladies asked me to keep their secret a few days longer. 'You must give
us till next Monday,' one of them said this very morning: 'by that
time we shall be in order, and then we can set to work.'"

"It was Miss Challoner who told me herself," observed Mattie, in a
deprecating manner. "My brother and I called this afternoon: you see,
being the clergyman, and such close neighbors, he thought we might be
of some use to the poor things."

"Poor things indeed!" ejaculated Miss Milner. "I cannot tell you how
bad I felt," she went on, her little gray curls bobbing over her high
cheek-bones with every word, "when that dear young lady put down her
head there"--pointing to a spot about as big as a half-crown on the
wooden counter--"and cried like a baby. 'Oh, how silly I am!' she
said, sobbing-like; 'and what would my sisters say to me? But you are
so kind, Miss Milner; and it does seem all so strange and horrid.' I
made up my mind,