f going into the parlor? It is
so much pleasanter out here." And as Mrs. Challoner assented, they
were soon comfortably established on the tiny lawn; and Archie, very
much at his ease, and feeling himself unaccountably happy, proceeded
to deliver some trifling message from his sister, that was his
ostensible reason for his intrusion.

"Why does she not deliver her messages herself?" thought Phillis; but
she kept this remark to herself. Only, that evening she watched the
young clergyman a little closely, as though he puzzled her. Phillis
was the man of the family; and it was she who always stood upon guard
if Nan or Dulce needed a sentinel. She was beginning to think Mr.
Drummond came very often to see them, considering their short
acquaintance. If it were Miss Mattie, now, who ran in and out with
little offerings of flowers and fruit in a nice neighborly fashion!
But for this very dignified young man to burden himself with these
slight feminine messages,--a question about new-laid eggs, which even
Nan had forgotten.

Phillis was quite glad when her mother said,--

"You ought to have brought your sister, Mr. Drummond: she must be so
dull all alone,"--forgetting all about the dressmaking, poor soul! but
Phillis remembered it a moment afterwards, with a rush of bitter
feeling.

Perhaps, after all, that was why he came in so often, because he was
so sorry for them, and wished to help them, as he said. A clergyman
has more privileges than other men: perhaps she was wrong to suspect
him. He might not wish his sister to visit them, except in a purely
business-like way; but with him it was different. Most likely he had
tea with Mrs. Trimmings sometimes, just to show he was not proud; he
might even sit and chat with Mrs. Squails, and not feel compromised in
the least. Oh, yes! how stupid she was to think he admired Nan,
because she had intercepted a certain glance! That was her mania,
thinking every one must be after Nan. Things were different now.

Of course he would be their only link with civilized society,--the
only cultivated mind with which they could hold converse; and here
Phillis ceased to curl her lip, and her gray eyes took a sombre
shade, and she sighed so audibly that Archie broke off an interesting
discussion on last Commemoration, and looked at her in unfeigned
surprise.

"Oh, yes! we were there," returned Nan, innocently, who loved to talk
of those dear old times; "and we were at the _fete_ at Oriel, and