at any one else, we must make the best of
him."

"And when are they to be married?" asked her cousin, curiously. He was
not quite pleased with this discovery.

"When?--Oh, Harry, there is an 'if' in the case," returned Phillis,
solemnly. "The dearest fellow in the world has an ogre of a father,--a
man so benighted, so narrow in his prejudices, that he thinks it
decidedly _infra dig._ for his intended daughter in-law to sew other
people's gowns. I do love that expression. Harry: it is so forcible.
So he forbids the banns."

"No, really!--Is she serious, Nan?" But Nan grew shy all at once, and
would not answer.

"I am serious, Sir Henry Challoner," replied Phillis, pompously. "The
path of true love is impeded. Poor Dick is pining in his rooms at
Oxford; and Nan--well, I am afraid her looks belie her; only you know
appearances are sometimes deceitful." And indeed Nan's pink cheeks and
air of placid contentment scarcely bore out her sister's words.

The newly found cousin sat in silent perplexity staring at them both.
Love-affairs were not much in his way; and until now he had never been
thrown much with his equals in the other sex. His rough colonial life,
full of excitement and money-getting, had engrossed his youth. He was
now a man of thirty; but in disposition, in simplicity, and in a
certain guilelessness of speech, he seemed hardly more than an
overgrown boy.

"Well, now, is it not like a book?" he said, at last, breaking the
silence quite abruptly. "It must be an awful bother for you, Nan; but
we must put a stop to all that. I am the head of the family; and I
shall have a word to say to that Mr.--what is his name?"

"Mr. Mayne," returned Nan, softly.

It was at this moment that the name of Hercules came into Phillis's
head for her cousin. What feats of strength did he mean to undertake
on their behalf? Would he strangle the hydra-headed monster of public
opinion that pronounced "women who sewed other women's gowns" were
not to be received into society? Would he help Nan gather the golden
apples of satisfied love and ambition? What was it that he meant to do
by dint of sheer force and good nature?

Harry Challoner did not long leave them in ignorance of his
intentions. In the coolest possible way he at once assumed the
headship of the family,--adopting them at once, and giving them the
benefit of his opinions on every point that could possibly be mooted.

"I had not a soul belonging to me until now," he