announced Phillis. "A
cousin does not turn up every day; and when he promises to be a good
fellow, like Harry, we cannot do him too much honor."

"Ah, I should like to come," returned Mattie. "I have had such a nice
day; and, if Archie will not mind----" And then she bustled into the
vicarage, and into her brother's study.

Archie roused himself a little wearily from his abstraction to listen
to his sister's story; but at the end of it he said good-naturedly,
for he had taught himself to be tolerant of Mattie's little
gaucheries,--

"And the long and short of it is that you want to be gadding again.
Well, run and get ready, or you will keep their tea waiting; and do
put on your collar straight, Mattie." But this slight thrust was lost
on Mattie as she delightedly withdrew. Archie sighed as he tried to
compose himself to his reading. He had not been asked to join Mattie.
For the last few weeks he had become a stranger to the cottage. Did
they notice his absence? he wondered. Did they miss the visits that
had once been so frequent? By and by he would resume his old habits of
intimacy, and go among them as he had done; but just now the effort
was too painful. He dreaded the unspoken sympathy in Phillis's eyes.
He dreaded anything like an understanding between them. Nan's perfect
unconsciousness was helpful to him; but there was something in
Phillis's manner that stirred up an old pain. For the present he was
safer and happier alone in his study, though Mattie did not think so,
and told her friends that Archie looked terribly dull.

Mrs. Challoner proposed sending for him; but Phillis, greatly to her
mother's surprise, negatived the proposition:

"Oh, no, mother; pray do not! Mattie, you must excuse me. I do not
mean to be rude, but we should all have to be so dreadfully
well-behaved if Mr. Drummond came, and I just feel myself in a
'nonsense mood,' as Dulce used to say when she was a baby." And then
they all forgot Archie, and fell to discussing the new cousin.

"He is dreadfully ugly, mammie, is he not?" observed Dulce, who had a
horror of red hair. But Mrs. Challoner demurred:

"Well, no, pet; I cannot agree with you. He is very plain, but so is
Dick; but it struck me they were both rather alike." An indignant "How
can you, mother!" from Nan. "Well, my dear," she continued, placidly,
"I do not mean really alike, for they have not a feature in common;
but they have both got the same honest, open look, only Dick's