lunch.

The picnickers did not row home till sunset, but Henry found no
opportunity to resume the conversation with Madeline which had been
broken off at such an interesting point.

CHAPTER IV.

The advent of a stranger was an event of importance in the small social
world of Newville. Mr. Harrison Cordis, the new clerk in the drug-store,
might well have been flattered by the attention which he excited at
church the next day, especially from the fairer half of the congregation.
Far, however, from appearing discomposed thereby, he returned it with
such interest that at least half the girls thought they had captivated
him by the end of the morning service. They all agreed that he was
awfully handsome, though Laura maintained that he was rather too pretty
for a man. He was certainly very pretty. His figure was tall, slight, and
elegant. He had delicate hands and feet, a white forehead, deep blue,
smiling eyes, short, curly, yellow, hair, and a small moustache, drooping
over lips as enticing as a girl's. But the ladies voted his manners yet
more pleasing than his appearance. They were charmed by his easy
self-possession, and constant alertness as to details of courtesy. The
village beaus scornfully called him "cityfied," and secretly longed to be
like him. A shrewder criticism than that to which he was exposed would,
however, have found the fault with Cordis's manners that, under a show of
superior ease and affability, he was disposed to take liberties with his
new acquaintances, and exploit their simplicity for his own
entertainment. Evidently he felt that he was in the country.

That very first Sunday, after evening meeting, he induced Fanny Miller,
at whose father's house he boarded, to introduce him to Madeline, and
afterward walked home with her, making himself very agreeable, and
crowning his audacity by asking permission to call. Fanny, who went along
with them, tattled of this, and it produced a considerable sensation
among the girls, for it was the wont of Newville wooers to make very
gradual approaches. Laura warmly expressed to Madeline her indignation at
the impudence of the proceeding, but that young lady was sure she did not
see any harm in it; whereupon Laura lost her temper a little, and hinted
that it might be more to her credit if she did. Madeline replied
pointedly, and the result was a little spat, from which Laura issued
second best, as people generally did who provoked a verbal strife with