le all arriving; the breakfast
all ready; the Rector with his surplice on; and no wedding! Fancy the
Jew with all her fallals, on the old lady's hands, and your cousin
John----"

"I have told you already, Phil, my cousin John will not be there."

"So much the better," he said, with a laugh, "I don't want him to be
there--shows his sense, when his nose is put out of joint, to keep out
of the way."

"I wish you would understand," she said, with a little vexation, "that
John is not put out of joint, as you say in that odious way. He has
never been anything more to me, nor I to him, than we are now--like
brother and sister."

"The more fool he," said Compton, "to have the chance of a nice girl
like you, Nell, and not to go in for it. But I don't believe a bit in
the brother and sister dodge."

"We will be just the same all our lives," cried Elinor.

"Not if I know it," said Phil. "I'm an easy-going fellow in most ways,
but you'll find I'm an old Turk about you, my little duck of a Nell. No
amateur brother for me. If you can't get along with your old Phil,
without other adorers----"

"Phil! as if I should ever think or care whether there was another man
in the world!"

"Oh, that's going too far," he said, laughing. "I shan't mind a little
flirtation. You may have a man or two in your train to fetch and carry,
get your shawl for you, and call your carriage, and so forth; but no
serious old hand, Nell--nothing to remind you that there was a time when
you didn't know Phil Compton." His laugh died away at this point, and
for a moment his face assumed that grave look which changed its
character so much. "If you don't come to repent before then that you
ever saw that fellow's ugly face, Nell----"

"Phil, how could I ever repent? Nobody but you should dare to say such a
thing to me!"

"I believe that," he said. "If that old John of yours tried it on----
Well, my pet, he is your old John. You can't change facts, even if you
do throw the poor fellow over. Now, here's a new chance for all of them,
Nell. I shouldn't wonder a bit if you had another crop of letters
bidding you look before you leap. That Rectory woman, what's her name?
that knows my family. You'll see she'll have some new story before we're
clear of her. They'll never stop blackguarding me, I know, until you're
Phil Compton yourself, my beauty. I wish that day was come. I'm afraid
to go off again and leave you, Nell. They'll be putting something into
your he