me, but I must go to work. Will you go and see the sick people in
Back Grove Street, Reginald? I don't think I can go to-day."

"I should like to know what was in the paper," said the young man, with
an obstinacy that filled the girls with alarm. They had been in hopes
that everything between father and son was to be happy and friendly, now
that Reginald was about to do what his father wished.

"Oh, you shall see it," said Mrs. Hurst, half alarmed too; "but it is
not anything, as your father says; only we women are sensitive. We are
always thinking of things which, perhaps, were never intended to harm
us. Ursula, you take my advice, and don't go and mix yourself up with
Dissenters and that kind of people. The Tozer girl may be very nice, but
she is still Tozer's granddaughter, after all."

Reginald followed the visitor out of the room, leaving his sisters very
ill at ease within, and his father not without anxieties which were so
powerful, indeed, that he relieved his mind by talking of them to his
daughters--a most unusual proceeding.

"That woman will set Reginald off at the nail again," he cried; "after
he had begun to see things in a common-sense light. There was an attack
made upon him last night on account of that blessed chaplaincy, which
has been more trouble to me than it is worth. I suppose he'll throw it
up now. But I wash my hands of the matter. I wonder how you girls can
encourage that chattering woman to come here."

"Papa!" cried Janey, ever on the defensive, "we _hate_ her! It is you
who encourage her to come here."

"Oh, hush!" cried Ursula, with a warning glance; it was balm to her soul
to hear her father call Mrs. Hurst _that woman_. "We have been to see
the house," she said; "it was very nice. I think Reginald liked it,
papa."

"Ah, well," said Mr. May, "girls and boys are queer articles. I dare say
the house, if he likes it, will weigh more with him than justice or
common sense. So Copperhead was the people's name? What would be wanted,
do you think, Ursula, to make Reginald's room into a comfortable room
for a pupil? Comfortable, recollect; not merely what would do; and one
that has been used, I suppose, to luxury. You can look over it and let
me know."

"Are we going to take a pupil, papa?" cried Janey, with widening eyes.

"I don't know what you could teach him," he said. "Manners, perhaps? Let
me know, Ursula. The room is not a bad room; it would want a new carpet,
curtains, perhaps--