as anybody, unless the
culprit herself; she probably knew better what May was foolishly
planning than either their father or mother did, and would convey to
them the necessary information.

As for Dora, she was thinking in a restless fever, "I hope--I hope he
does not see how much I mind being alone with him. It is just because I
am not used to it. How I wish somebody would come in,--not mother,
perhaps, for she would start and look put out herself, and sit down
without so much as getting rid of her sunshade; and, oh dear, not May,
for she would stare, and I do not know what on earth she would
think--some wild absurdity, I dare say; anyhow, she would look exactly
what she thought."

"Look here, Miss Dora," he said abruptly; "you don't think your sister
May ought to renounce the object of her education hitherto, and your
father's views for her, in order to do like Miss Phyllis Carey? You are
aware that May has become enamoured of Phyllis Carey's example, and is
bent on following in her footsteps; but it won't do, and I have told her
so. I trust nobody suspects me of encouraging young ladies to become
shop-women," he added, with a slightly foolish laugh, "as old actors
used to be accused of decoying young men of rank and fashion into going
on the stage, and recruiting sergeants of beguiling country bumpkins
into taking the king's shilling."

"Has May spoken to you about it?" cried Dora, startled out of her
engrossing private reflections. "What a child she is! I am sorry she has
troubled you; she ought not to have done that. I hope you will excuse
her."

"Don't speak of it," he said a little stiffly, as he put down his cup
and signified he would have no more tea.

"And you said no," remarked Dora, with an involuntary fall of her voice
reflecting the sinking of her heart. "Of course you could not do
otherwise. It was a foolish notion. I am afraid Phyllis Carey is enough
of a nuisance to Miss Franklin--and other people. It is hard that you
should be bothered by these girls. Only I suspect poor 'little May' will
be most dreadfully, unreasonably disappointed;" and there was an attempt
to smile and a quiver of the soft lips which she could not hide.

"I am not bothered, and I hate to disappoint your sister,--I trust you
understand that," he said quickly and earnestly. "But it would be
sacrificing her and overturning your father's arrangements for
her--disappointing what I am sure are among his dearest wishes."

She did