Ursula!"
repeating the call with some impatience when she paused to dry her eyes.
She ran down to him quickly, throwing down her work in her haste. He was
standing at the door, and somehow for the first time the worn look about
his eyes struck Ursula with a touch of pity. She had never noticed it
before: a look of suppressed pain and anxiety, which remained about his
eyes though the mouth smiled. It had never occurred to her to be sorry
for her father before, and the idea struck her as very strange now.

"Come in," he said, "I want to speak to you. I have been thinking about
the young woman--this friend of yours. We are all among the Dissenters
now-a-days, whatever Mrs. Sam Hurst may say. You seem to have taken a
fancy to this Tozer girl?"

"Don't call her so, papa, please. She is a lady in herself, as good a
lady as any one."

"Well! I don't say anything against her, do I? So you hold by your
fancy? You are not afraid of Grange Lane and Mrs. Sam Hurst."

"I have not seen her again," said Ursula, cast down. "I have not been
out at all. I could not bear to be so friendly one day, and then to pass
as if one did not know her the next. I cannot do it," cried the girl, in
tears; "if I see her, I must just be the same as usual to her, whatever
you say."

"Very well, _be_ the same as usual," said Mr. May; "that is why I called
you. I have my reasons. Notwithstanding Tozer, be civil to the girl. I
have my reasons for what I say."

"Do you mean it, papa!" said Ursula, delighted. "Oh, how good of you!
You don't mind--you really don't mind? Oh! I can't tell you how thankful
I am; for to pretend to want to be friends, and then to break off all in
a moment because of a girl's grandfather----"

"Don't make a principle of it, Ursula. It is quite necessary, in an
ordinary way, to think of a girl's grandfather--and a boy's too, for
that matter. No shopkeeping friends for me; but in this individual case
I am willing to make an exception. For the moment, you see, Dissenters
are in the ascendant. Young Copperhead is coming next week. Now, go."

Ursula marched delighted upstairs. "Janey, run and get your hat," she
said; "I am going out. I am not afraid of any one now. Papa is a great
deal nicer than he ever was before. He says I may see Miss Beecham as
much as I like. He says we need not mind Mrs. Sam Hurst. I am so glad! I
shall never be afraid of that woman any more."

Janey was taken altogether by surprise. "I hope he is not go