h, that is too bad of you, Miss Challoner," he said, as soon as he
recovered himself; but, nevertheless, he liked the girl better for her
little joke.

Mr. Drummond's constitutional had lasted so long that Mattie grew
quite frightened, and came down in her drab dressing-gown to wait for
him. It was not a becoming costume, but it was warm and comfortable;
but then Mattie never considered what became her. If any one had
admired her, or cared how she looked or what she wore, or had taken an
interest in her for her own sake, she would doubtless have developed
an honest liking for pretty things. But what did it matter under the
present circumstances? Mr. Drummond was lighting his chamber candle
when Mattie rushed out on him,--a grotesque little figure, all capes
and frills.

"Oh, Archie, how you frightened me! Where have you been?"

Archie shrugged his shoulders at this.

"I am not aware, Matilda,"--for in severe moods he would call her by
her full name, a thing she especially disliked from him,--"I did not
know before that I was accountable to you for my actions. Neither am I
particularly obliged to you for spying upon me in this way." For the
sight of Mattie at this time of night was peculiarly distasteful. Why
was he to be watched in his own house?

"Oh, dear, Archie! How can you say such things? Spy on you, indeed!
when there is a storm coming up, and I was so anxious."

"I am very much obliged to you," returned Archie, ironically; "but, as
you see I am safe, don't you think you had better take off that
thing"--pointing to the obnoxious garment--"and go to bed?" And such
was his tone that poor Mattie fled without a word, and cried a little
in her dark room, because Archie would not be kind to her and let her
love him, but was always finding fault with one trifle or other.
To-night it was her poor old dressing-gown, which had been her
mother's, and had been considered good enough for Mattie. And then he
had called her a spy. And here she gave a sob that caught Archie's
ears as he passed her door.

"Good-night, you little goose!" he called out, for the sound made him
uncomfortable; and though the words were contemptuous, the voice was
not, and Mattie at once dried her eyes and was comforted.

But before Archie went to sleep that night he made up his mind that it
was his duty as a clergyman and a Christian to look over Phillis's
wilfulness, and to befriend to the utmost of his power the strangers,
widow and father