ch.

"You may say it is not an ascetic age; but yet I suppose the
Ritualists----. Perhaps you are a Ritualist yourself, Mr. May? I know as
little personally about the church here, as you do about Salem Chapel. I
like the service--so does papa--and I like above all things the
independent standing of a clergyman; the feeling he must have that he is
free to do his duty. That is why I like the church; for other things of
course I like our own body best."

"I don't suppose such things can be argued about, Miss Beecham. I wish
I knew something of my father's new pupil. I don't like having a
stranger in the house; my father is fond of having his own way."

"It is astonishing how often parents are so," said Phoebe, demurely; "and
the way they talk of their experience! as if each new generation did not
know more than the one that preceded it."

"You are pleased to laugh, but I am quite in earnest. A pupil is a
nuisance. For instance, no man who has a family should ever take one. I
know what things are said."

"You mean about the daughters? That is true enough, there are always
difficulties in the way; but you need not be afraid of Clarence
Copperhead. He is not the fascinating pupil of a church-novel. There's
nothing the least like the Heir of Redclyffe about him."

"You are very well up in Miss Yonge's novels, Miss Beecham."

"Yes," said Phoebe; "one reads Scott for Scotland (and a few other
things), and one reads Miss Yonge for the church. Mr. Trollope is good
for that too, but not so good. All that I know of clergymen's families I
have got from her. I can recognize you quite well, and your sister, but
the younger ones puzzle me; they are not in Miss Yonge; they are too
much like other children, too naughty. I don't mean anything
disagreeable. The babies in Miss Yonge are often very naughty too, but
not the same. As for you, Mr. May----"

"Yes. As for me?"

"Oh, I know everything about you. You are a fine scholar, but you don't
like the drudgery of teaching. You have a fine mind, but it interferes
with you continually. You have had a few doubts--just enough to give a
piquancy; and now you have a great ideal, and mean to do many things
that common clergymen don't think of. That was why you hesitated about
the chaplaincy? See how much I have got out of Miss Yonge. I know you as
well as if I had known you all my life; a great deal better than I know
Clarence Copperhead; but then, no person of genius has taken any troubl