she paused, and
looked up at him in astonishment, "What, Mr. Dancy! you purpose to
call on my mother, and yet you refused Mr. Drummond's visit?" for the
news of Archie's defeat had already reached the Friary through Miss
Mattie.

Mr. Dancy seemed rather nonplussed at this, and then he laughed:

"Ah, you are shrewd, Miss Challoner; there is no deceiving you! I have
seen Mr. Drummond pass and repass often enough; and--pardon me, if he
be a friend--I thought from the cut of his coat that he was prig, and
I have a horror of clerical prigs."

"He is not priggish in the least," was Phillis's annoyed rejoinder.

"No? Well, appearances are sometimes deceptive: perhaps I was too
hasty in my dread of being bored. But here comes your sister, I
think,--at least, I have seen you together: so I am leaving you in
good hands." And, before Phillis could reply, he had lifted his hat
and turned away, just as Nan, whose vigilant eyes were upon him, was
hurrying to join her sister.

"Oh, Phillis, was that Mr. Dancy?" she asked, in a reproachful voice,
as she hurried up to her.

"Yes, Nannie, it was Mr. Dancy," returned Phillis, composedly; "and I
wish I could have introduced him to you, for I believe he is coming to
call on mother." And, when she had related this astounding piece of
intelligence, she looked in Nan's face and laughed, and, in high good
humor, proceeded to relate their conversation.

CHAPTER XXX.

"NOW WE UNDERSTAND EACH OTHER."

One fine morning in September, Mr. Drummond was standing at the back
of Milner's Library, turning over the last new assortment of books
from Mudie, when two gentlemen entered the shop.

Strangers were always interesting to Archie, and he criticised them
under a twofold aspect--pastoral and social. In this way curiosity
becomes a virtue, and a man with a mission is not without his
interests in life. Hadleigh was Mr. Drummond's sheep-walk, where he
shepherded his lambs, and looked after his black sheep and tried to
wash them white, or, in default of that, at least to make out that
their fleece was not so sable after all: so he now considered it his
duty to leave off turning over the pages of a seductive-looking novel,
and to inspect the strangers.

They were both dressed in tweed travelling costumes, and looked
sunburnt, as though they had just returned from a walking-tour. The
elder was a short wiry man, with a shrewd face and quizzical eyes; and
he asked in sharp clipping voic