rsay. It would be too much to hope that Miss Phebe
should have had as much to say for any of the rest of us." He turned
laughingly to Phebe as he spoke, and she looked at him with eyes full
of implicit faith.

"No," she said, simply; "I haven't told Gerald any thing about you, only
your name. She will find it all out for herself so much better than I can
tell her."

"I am afraid I am not very good at finding people out," remarked Gerald,
bluntly, "unless I am extraordinarily interested in them--"

"Which I imagine you generally are not," interrupted Denham.

"True," she answered, smiling a little, "which I generally am not; I am
content with a very superficial knowledge. The world is crowded so full,
where could one stop who set out to know thoroughly all he met?"

"It is a bitter thought that you will never know more of me than just the
color of my beard," said Denham, reflectively, "but if such is your habit
I suppose I must resign myself to it. Now, I am exactly the reverse from
you; I am always extraordinarily interested in everybody."

"Ah, because as a clergyman you must be."

"No; simply because it happens to be my nature. One has one's individual
characteristics, you know, quite independently of one's profession."

"Yes, in other professions; but in yours--"

"But we are men first, Miss Vernor, afterward clergymen. Why may we not
keep our distinct idiosyncrasies, even in our clerical uniform?"

Gerald slashed her dress gently with her riding whip. "It seems to me as
if you should all be clergymen first and men afterward, fitting
yourselves to the profession rather than the profession to you; and so by
all confessedly following one pattern, you would be necessarily drawn
into a greater similitude with each other than any other class of men.
Ah, here is Mr. De Forest at last."

"At last?" repeated that gentleman as he joined the group, or rather
paused just beyond it, surveying Gerald with a critical glance which
seemed to take in accurately at one swift sweep every least detail of her
dress. "My watch stands at the minute, Miss Vernor."

"And here come the horses," added Phebe.

"Not much to boast of," said De Forest, turning the severe criticism of
his look upon the animals as the boy brought them up. "I wouldn't let you
be seen in Central Park with them. However, they are the best Joppa can
do for us. They are not very good-natured brutes either, but I believe
you look to a horse's hoofs rather th