f, and who will be made cashier of our bank very soon. He is
kind-hearted, liberal with his money, and universally beloved and
admired in society."

Mrs. Frankland was not the person to undervalue such a catalogue of
qualities when presented to her in the concrete. True, on her theory, a
Christian young woman ought to be ready in certain circumstances to
throw such a lover over the gunwale as ruthlessly as the sailors pitched
Jonah headlong. That is to say, a Christian young woman in the abstract
ought to be abstractly willing to discard a rich lover in the abstract.
But presented in this concrete and individual way the case was
different. She was a little dazzled at the brightness of Phillida's
worldly prospects, now that they were no longer merely rhetorical, but
real, tangible, and, in commercial phrase, convertible.

"True, true," she answered reflectively. "She would be so eminently
useful if she had money." This was the way Mrs. Frankland phrased her
sense of the attractiveness of such a man. "She might exert an excellent
influence in society. We do need more such people as the leaven of the
kingdom of heaven in wealthy circles."

"Indeed we do," said Mrs. Hilbrough, "and for Phillida to throw away
such prospects, and such opportunities for usefulness"--she added this
last as an afterthought, taking her cue from Mrs. Frankland--"seems to
me positively wrong."

"It would certainly be a mistake," said Mrs. Frankland. Mrs. Hilbrough
thought she detected just a quiver of regret in her companion's voice.
"Does he object strongly to her mission work?"

"No; he doesn't object to her work, I am sure, for she was already
absorbed in it when he first met her at my house, and if he had objected
there would have been no beginning of their attachment. But he is
greatly annoyed that she should be talked about and ridiculed as a
faith-doctor. He is a man of society, and he feels such things. Now,
considering how much danger of mistake and of enthusiasm there is in
such matters, Phillida might yield a little to so good a man."

"Perhaps I had better see her, Mrs. Hilbrough," was Mrs. Frankland's
non-committal reply.

"It would be necessary to see her at once, I fear. She is very resolute,
and he is greatly distressed by what people are saying about her, and a
little provoked, no doubt, at what he thinks her obstinacy."

"Perhaps I had better see her this evening," said Mrs. Frankland, with a
twinge of regret that she had