itt thoughtfully, 'you cannot tell. A man ought to be
the best judge of his own feelings; and perhaps Colonel Gainsborough is
ill, as he says.'

'What are you going to do about it?' said his father with a half sneer.

'Nothing; only, _if_ he should turn out to be right,--if he should die
within a year or two, what would become of his little daughter?'

Mr. and Mrs. Dallas exchanged a scarcely perceptible glance.

'Send her home to his family,' answered the former.

'Has he a family in England?'

'So he says. I judge, not a small one.'

'Not parents living, has he?'

'I believe not; but there are Gainsboroughs enough without that.'

'What ever made him come over here?'

'Some property quarrel, I gather, though the colonel never told me in
so many words.'

'Then he might not like to send Esther to them. Property quarrels are
embittering.'

'Do you know any sort of quarrel that isn't? It is impossible to say
beforehand what Colonel Gainsborough might like to do. He's a fidgety
man. If there's a thing I hate, in the human line, it's a fidget. You
can't reason with 'em.'

'Then what would become of that child, mother, if her father were
really to die?'

Pitt spoke now with a little anxiety; but Mrs. Dallas answered coolly.

'He would make the necessary arrangements.'

'But they have no friends here, and no relations. It would be
dreadfully forlorn for her. Mother, if Colonel Gainsborough _should_
die, wouldn't it be kind if you were to take her?'

'Too kind,' said Mr. Dallas. 'There is such a thing as being too kind,
Pitt. Did you never hear of it?'

'I do not comprehend, sir. What objection could there be? The child is
not a common child; she is one that anybody might like to have in the
house. I should think you and my mother might enjoy it very much,
especially with me away.'

'Especially,' said the elder man drily. 'Well, Pitt, perhaps you are
right; but for me there is this serious objection, that she is a
dissenter.'

'A dissenter!' echoed Pitt in unfeigned astonishment. 'What is a
"dissenter," here in the new country?'

'Very much the same thing that he is in the old country, I suspect.'

'And what is that, sir?'

'Humph!--well, don't you know? Narrow, underbred, and pig-headed, and
with that, disgustingly radical. That is what it means to be a
dissenter; always did mean.'

'Underbred! You cannot find, old country or new country, a better-bred
man than Colonel Gainsborough; and Esther i