hen, of his own accord, he changed the
subject. He was a little sparing of his hints after that, even to his
aunt.

It was shortly after this that he came into the Friary one evening and
electrified his cousins by two pieces of news. He had just called at
the vicarage, he said; but he had not gone in, for Miss Mattie had run
downstairs in a great bustle to tell him her sister Grace had just
arrived. Her brother had been down to Leeds and brought her up with
him. Phillis put down her work; her face had become suddenly rather
pale.

"Grace has come," she half whispered to herself. And then she added
aloud, "Poor Mattie will be glad, and sorry too! She will like to have
her sister with her for the New Year; but in a few weeks she will have
to pack up her own things and go home. And she was only saying the
other day that she has never been so happy in her life as she has been
here."

"Why can't she stay, then?" asked Sir Harry, rather abruptly. "I don't
hold with people making themselves miserable for nothing: that does
not belong to my creed."

"Oh, poor Mattie has not a choice in the matter," returned Nan, who
had grown very fond of her little neighbor. "Though she is thirty, she
must still do as other people bid her. They cannot both be spared from
home,--at least, I believe not,--and so her mother has recalled her."

"Oh, but that is nonsense!" replied Sir Harry, rather crossly for him.
"Girls are spared well enough when they are married. And I thought the
Drummonds were not well off. Did not Phillis tell me so?"

"They are very badly off; but then, you see, Mr. Drummond does not
want two sisters to take care of his house; and, though he tries to be
good to Mattie, he is not so fond of her as he is of his sister Grace;
and they have always planned to live together, and so poor Mattie has
to go."

"Yes, and I must say I am sorry for the poor little woman," observed
Mrs. Challoner. "There is a large family of girls and boys,--I think
Mr. Drummond told us he had seven sisters,--and Mattie seems left out
in the cold among them all: they laugh at her oddities, and quiz her
most unmercifully; even Mr. Drummond does, and Nan scolds him for it;
but he has not been so bad lately. It is rather hard that none of
them seem to want her."

"You forget Grace is very good to her, mother," broke in Phillis,
somewhat eagerly. "Mattie always says so."

"By the by, I must have a look at this paragon. Is not her name among
thos