mpers of wine, of choice game, or fruit from Covent
Garden, filled the tiny larder to overflowing. Silks and ribbons, and
odds and ends of female finery, were sent down from Marshall &
Snelgrove's, or Swan & Edgar's. In vain Mrs. Challoner implored him
not to spoil the girls, who had never had so many pretty things in
their lives, and hardly knew what to do with them. Sir Harry would not
deny himself this pleasure; and he came up evening after evening,
overflowing with health and spirits, to join the family circle in the
small parlor and enliven them with his stories of colonial life.

People began to talk about him. He was too big and too prominent a
figure to pass unnoticed in Hadleigh. The Challoners and their odd
ways, and their cousin the baronet who was a millionaire and
unmarried, were canvassed in many a drawing-room. "We always knew they
were not just 'nobodies,'" as one young lady observed; and another
remarked, a little scornfully, "that she supposed Sir Henry Challoner
would put a stop to all that ridiculous dressmaking now." But when
they found that Nan and Phillis went about as usual, taking orders
and fitting on dresses, their astonishment knew no bounds.

Sir Harry watched them with a secret chuckle. "He must put a stop to
all that presently," he said; but just at first it amused him to see
it all. "It was so pretty and plucky of them," he thought.

He would saunter into the work-room in the morning, and watch them for
an hour together as he sat and talked to them. After the first they
never minded him, and his presence made no difference to them. Nan
measured and cut out, and consulted Phillis in her difficulties, as
usual. Dulce sang over her sewing-machine, and Phillis went from one
to the other with a grave, intent face. Sometimes she would speak
petulantly to him, and bid him not whistle or tease Laddie: but that
was when one of her fits of impatience was on her. She was generally
gracious to him, and made him welcome.

When he was tired of sitting quiet, he would take refuge with Aunt
Catherine in her little parlor, or go into the vicarage for a chat
with Mattie and her brother: he was becoming very intimate there.
Sometimes, but not often, he would call at the White House; but,
though the Cheynes liked him, and Magdalene was amused at his
simplicity, there was not much in common between them.

He had taken a liking to Colonel Middleton and his daughter, and would
have found his way to Brookly