ressmakers," bringing out the news rather cautiously, for fear he
should be shocked; a baronet must be sensitive on such points. But Sir
Harry only laughed.

"Well, they are plucky girls," he said, admiringly; "I like them for
that." And then he asked, a little anxiously, if his aunt sewed gowns
too,--that was how he put it,--and seemed mightily relieved to hear
that she did very little but read to the girls.

"I would not like to hear she was slaving herself at her age," he
remarked, seriously. "Work will not hurt the girls: it keeps them out
of mischief. But now I have come, we must put a stop to all this." And
then he got up and threw back his shoulders, as though he were
adjusting them to some burden; and Mattie, as she looked up at him,
thought again of the brewer's dray.

"I was afraid when he got off his chair he would touch the ceiling,"
she said, afterwards. "He quite stooped of his own accord going
through the study doorway."

When Sir Henry had shaken himself into order, and pulled an end of his
rough red moustache, he said, quite suddenly,--

"As you are a friend of the family, Miss Drummond, I think it would be
as well if you would go with me to the Friary and introduce me in due
form; for, though you would not believe it in a man of my size, I am
painfully shy, and the notion of all these girls, unless I take them
singly, is rather overwhelming." And, though this request took Mattie
a little by surprise, she saw no reason for refusing to do him this
kindness. So she assented willingly, for in her heart Mattie was fond
of a scene. It gave her such a hold on Archie's attention afterwards;
and, to do him justice, when the Challoners were on the _tapis_, he
made a splendid listener.

Sir Henry walked very fast, as though he were in a tremendous hurry;
but he was nervous, poor fellow, and, though he did not like to own as
much to a woman, he would almost have liked to run away, in spite of
his coming all those thousands of miles to see his relations. He had
pressed Mattie into the service to cover his confusion, but the little
woman herself hardly saw how she was needed, for, instead of waiting
for her introduction, or sending in his name or card by Dorothy, he
just put them both aside and stepped into the first room that stood
handy, guided by the sound of voices.

"How do you do, Aunt Catherine?" he said, walking straight up to the
terrified lady, who had never seen anything so big in her life. "I am