arcely be expected that the eager
and young should hold the opinions of the cool and middle-aged."

"Oh! oh! we are independent; we think for ourselves!" cried Mr.
Helstone. "We are a little Jacobin, for anything I know--a little
freethinker, in good earnest. Let us have a confession of faith on the
spot."

And he took the heiress's two hands--causing her to let fall her whole
cargo of flowers--and seated her by him on the sofa.

"Say your creed," he ordered.

"The Apostles' Creed?"

"Yes."

She said it like a child.

"Now for St. Athanasius's. That's the test!"

"Let me gather up my flowers. Here is Tartar coming; he will tread upon
them."

Tartar was a rather large, strong, and fierce-looking dog, very ugly,
being of a breed between mastiff and bulldog, who at this moment entered
through the glass door, and posting directly to the rug, snuffed the
fresh flowers scattered there. He seemed to scorn them as food; but
probably thinking their velvety petals might be convenient as litter, he
was turning round preparatory to depositing his tawny bulk upon them,
when Miss Helstone and Miss Keeldar simultaneously stooped to the
rescue.

"Thank you," said the heiress, as she again held out her little apron
for Caroline to heap the blossoms into it. "Is this your daughter, Mr.
Helstone?" she asked.

"My niece Caroline."

Miss Keeldar shook hands with her, and then looked at her. Caroline also
looked at her hostess.

Shirley Keeldar (she had no Christian name but Shirley: her parents, who
had wished to have a son, finding that, after eight years of marriage,
Providence had granted them only a daughter, bestowed on her the same
masculine family cognomen they would have bestowed on a boy, if with a
boy they had been blessed)--Shirley Keeldar was no ugly heiress. She was
agreeable to the eye. Her height and shape were not unlike Miss
Helstone's; perhaps in stature she might have the advantage by an inch
or two. She was gracefully made, and her face, too, possessed a charm as
well described by the word grace as any other. It was pale naturally,
but intelligent, and of varied expression. She was not a blonde, like
Caroline. Clear and dark were the characteristics of her aspect as to
colour. Her face and brow were clear, her eyes of the darkest gray (no
green lights in them--transparent, pure, neutral gray), and her hair of
the darkest brown. Her features were distinguished--by which I do not
mean that they were high