man in Fourteenth street, now, they
say, knows all about it, and works her cures scientifically, and not
blindly as Miss Callender does."

This allusion to cures by Phillida set Millard into a whirl of feeling.
That she had been doing something calculated to make her the subject of
talk brought a rush of indignant feeling, but all his training as a man
of society and as a man of business inclined him to a prudent silence
under excitement. He turned his derby hat around and around, examining
the crown by touch, and then, reversing it, he scrutinized the address
of the hatter who did not make it. Though he had come all the way to
Avenue C to make a confidante of his aunt, he now found it impossible to
do so. She had rejoiced so much in his betrothal to her friend, how
could he let her see how far apart he and Phillida had drifted? For
some minutes he managed to talk with her about her own family matters,
and then turned back to Phillida again.

"Tell me, Aunt Hannah, all you know about Miss Callender's cures. I
don't like to ask her because she and I disagree so widely on some
things that we do not like to talk about them."

His aunt saw that Charley was profoundly disturbed. She therefore began
with some caution, as treading on unknown ground, in talking with him
about Phillida.

"I don't know what to think about these things, Charley. But in anything
I say you must understand that I love Miss Callender almost as much as
you do, and if anybody can cure by faith she can. In fact, she has had
wonderful success in some cures. Besides, she's no money-maker, like the
woman doctor in Fourteenth street, who takes pay for praying over you,
and rubbing your head, maybe. You know about the cure of Wilhelmina
Schulenberg, of course?"

"No; not fully. We haven't liked to talk about it. Wilhelmina is the
poor creature that has been in bed so long."

This mere fencing was to cover the fact that Millard had not heard
anything of the miracle in Wilhelmina's case. But seeing his aunt look
at him inquiringly, he added:

"Is she quite cured, do you think--this Miss Schulenberg?"

"No; but she can sit up and walk about. She got better day after day
under Miss Callender's praying, but lately, I think, she is at a
standstill. Well, that was the first, and it made a great talk. And I
don't see but that it is very remarkable. Everybody in the tenement
house was wild about it, and Miss Callender soon came to be pointed at
by the childr