reflected
tranquilly. "He is mine--mine!"

At that very moment Miss Electa Pratt was seated in the awe-inspiring
reception-room of Mrs. J. Mortimer Van Deuser's residence in Beacon
Street. The two ladies were engaged in earnest conversation.

* * * * *

"What you tell me with regard to Philura fills me with surprise and
alarm," Mrs. Van Deuser was remarking with something more than her
accustomed majesty of tone and mien. "Philura Rice certainly did _not_
become engaged to be married during her stay in Boston. Neither has she
been the recipient of funds from myself, nor, to the best of my
knowledge, from any other member of the family. Personally, I have
always been averse to the encouragement of extravagance and vanity in
those destined by a wise Providence to pass their lives in a humble
station. I fear exceedingly that Philura's visits to Boston have failed
to benefit her as I wished and intended."

"But she _said_ that she had money, and that she was going to get
married," persisted Miss Pratt. "You don't suppose"--lowering her
strident tones to a whisper--"that the poor thing is going crazy?"

* * * * *

Mrs. Van Deuser had concentrated her intellectual and penetrating orbs
upon a certain triangular knob that garnished the handle of her
visitor's umbrella; she vouchsafed no reply. When she did speak, after
the lapse of some moments, it was to dismiss that worthy person with a
practiced ease and adroitness which permitted of nothing further, either
in the way of information or conjecture.

"Philura is, after all, a distant relative of my own," soliloquized Mrs.
Van Deuser, "and _as such_ is entitled to consideration."

Her subsequent cogitations presently took shape to themselves and
became a letter, dispatched in the evening mail and bearing the address
of the Rev. Silas Pettibone, Innisfield. Mrs. Van Deuser recalled in
this missive Miss Philura's "unfortunate visit" to the Ontological Club,
and the patent indications of its equally unfortunate consequences. "I
should be inclined to take myself severely to task in the matter," wrote
the excellent and conscientious lady, "if I had not improved the
opportunity to explain at length, in the hearing of my misguided
relative, the nature and scope of God's controlling providence, as
signally displayed in His dealings with the humbler classes of society.
As an under-shepherd of the lowly flock to whic