simplicity.

"But people would be so disappointed," she observed, plaintively. "All
the middle-aged people like sermons."

"It would not hurt them to be disappointed sometimes. They would
appreciate the real thing all the more when it came. It is as well to
go without food altogether as to be fed on husks. After all, people
forget that they come to church to say their prayers all together, and
sing glorias."

"That is very nicely said, dear," was Nan's admiring comment on this.

But Phillis waved aside the praise. She was quite in earnest.

"But if I were speaking to one of these real and not make-believe
preachers, I would say to him, 'Never be discouraged. Say what you
have got to say: if you really feel it and mean it, some one will feel
it too. You can't see into people's hearts: and a good thing, too, my
friend. But "the arrow at the venture" may tell; some one may be "hit
between the joints of the armor."' There, come along; you shall have
more of my hints another time. I have said my say for the present."
And Phillis rose from the boulder, with her eyes bright and kindled by
some moving thought, and went down to the edge of the water, and
watched a sea-gull dipping towards the shore in the midst of the windy
lights; while Nan, marvelling at her sister's unusual earnestness,
followed more slowly.

The Challoners were holding up their heads in the place now. There was
no denying that. By the people at the vicarage and the White House
they were owned and regarded as equals. Mrs. Cheyne made no secret of
her affection for Phillis; and she was full of kindness also to Nan
and Dulce. It was their own fault if they declined her frequent
invitations. But there was one person who refused to hold out the hand
of amity to the eccentric new-comers.

Colonel Middleton still shook his white head, and delivered his
protest into his daughter's ear. Elizabeth, declared, laughingly,
"that the Challoner girls were to her father what a red rag is to a
bull." He never met one of them without coming home and relieving his
mind, as he called it. "My father is dying to know them," she would
say to Mr. Drummond. "He has fallen in love with them all,--mother and
daughters too; but he is denying himself an introduction for a certain
reason." But, though Archie looked curious and questioned her very
closely, she chose to be provoking and say no more. It was Colonel
Middleton who at last enlightened the young man.

They were walkin