the
novelty----" But here he stopped, reduced to silence by the shocked
expression of Mrs. Challoner's face.

"Mr. Drummond! my girls--make a sensation--be talked about?" she
gasped; and all the spirit of her virtuous matronhood, and all the
instinctive feeling that years of culture and ingrained refinement of
nature had engendered, shone in her eyes. Her Nan and Phillis and
Dulce to draw this on themselves!

Now, at this unlucky moment, when the maternal fires were all alight,
who should enter but Phillis, wanting "pins, and dozens of
them,--quickly, please," and still warbling flatly that refrain of
"Bonnie Dundee!"

"Oh, Phillis! Oh, my darling child!" cried Mrs. Challoner, quite
hysterically; "do you know what your clergyman says? and if he should
say such things, what will be the world's opinion? No, Mr. Drummond, I
did not mean to be angry. Of course you are telling us this for our
good; but I do not know when I have been so shocked."

"Why, what is this?" demanded Phillis, calmly; but she fixed her eyes
on the unlucky clergyman, who began to wish that that last speech had
not been uttered.

"He says it is to make a sensation--to be talked about--that you are
going to do this," gasped Mrs. Challoner, who was far too much upset
to weigh words truly.

"What!" Phillis only uttered that very unmeaning monosyllable:
nevertheless, Archie jumped from his seat as though he had been shot.

"Mrs. Challoner, really this is too bad! No, you must allow me to
explain," as Phillis turned aside with a curling lip, as though she
would leave them. He actually went between her and the door, as though
he meant to prevent her egress forcibly. There is no knowing to what
lengths he would have gone in his sudden agitation. "Only wait a
moment, until I explain myself. Your mother has misunderstood me
altogether. Never has such a thought entered my mind!"

"Oh," observed Phillis. But now she stood still and began to collect
her pins out of her mother's basket. "Perhaps, as this is rather
unpleasant, you will have the kindness to tell me what it was you said
to my mother?" And she spoke like a young princess who had just
received an insult.

"I desire nothing more," returned Archie, determined to defend himself
at all costs. "I had been speaking to Mrs. Challoner about all this
unfortunate business. She was good enough to repose confidence in me,
and, as your clergyman, I felt myself bound to tell her exactly my
opinions on th