hasten the
wedding, and then take Phillida to Europe, where the sight of a
religious life quite different from her own would tend to widen her
views and weaken the ardor of her enthusiasm. He wondered what would be
the effect upon her, for instance, of the stack of crutches built up in
monumental fashion in one of the chapels of the Church of St. Germain
des Pres at Paris--the offerings of cripples restored by a Roman
Catholic faith-cure. But he reflected that the wedding could be hardly
got ready before Lent, and a marriage in Lent was repugnant to him not
only as a Churchman but even more as a man known for sworn fealty to the
canons of fashionable society, which are more inexorable than
ecclesiastical usages, since there is no one high and mighty enough to
grant a dispensation from them. It had long been understood that the
wedding should take place some time after Easter, and it seemed best not
to disturb that arrangement. What he wanted now was some means of
checking the mortifying career of Phillida as a faith-doctor.

XXI.

MRS. HILBROUGH'S INFORMATION.

Casting about in his thoughts for an ally, he hit upon Mrs. Hilbrough.
In her he would find an old friend of Phillida's who was pretty sure to
be free from brain-fogs. He quickly took a resolution to see her. It was
too late in the afternoon to walk uptown. On a fine Sunday like this the
street cars would not have strap-room left, and the elevated trains
would be in a state of extreme compression long before they reached
Fourteenth street. He took the best-looking cab he could find in Union
Square as the least of inconveniences; and just as the slant sun,
descending upon the Jersey lowlands, had set all the windows on the
uptown side of the cross streets in a ruddy glow, he alighted at the
Hilbrough door, paid his cabman a full day's wages, after the manner of
New York, and sent up his card to Mrs. Hilbrough with a message that he
hoped it would not incommode her to see him, since he had some inquiries
to make. Mrs. Hilbrough descended promptly, and there took place the
usual preliminary parley on the subject of the fine day, a parley
carried on by Millard with as little knowledge of what he was saying as
a phonographic doll has. Then begging her pardon for disturbing her on
Sunday afternoon, he asked:

"Have you heard anything about Miss Callender's course as a
faith-healer?"

Mrs. Hilbrough took a moment to think before replying. Here was a
dire