, and as I knew tea must be ready--I know you
want it, dear granny--I asked them to have some. Here it is, as I told
you, quite hot, and very fragrant this cold night. How cold it is
outside! I think it will freeze, and that skating may come off at last,
Mr. May, that you were talking of, you remember? You were to teach your
sisters to skate."

"Yes, with the advantage of your example."

Reginald had put himself in a corner, as far away as possible from the
old woman in the chair. His voice, he felt, had caught a formal tone. As
for the other, his antagonist, he had assumed the front of the
battle--even, in Tozer's absence, he had ventured to assume the front of
the fire. He was not the sort of man Reginald had expected, almost hoped
to see--a fleshy man, loosely put together, according to the nature, so
far as he knew it, of Dissenters; but a firmly knit, clean-limbed young
man, with crisp hair curling about his head, and a gleam of energy and
spirit in his eye. The gentler Anglican felt by no means sure of a
speedy victory, even of an intellectual kind. The young man before him
did not look a slight antagonist. They glared at each other, measuring
their strength; they did not know, indeed, that they had been brought in
here to this warmth and light, like the stag-beetles, to make a little
amusement for Phoebe; but they were quite ready to fight all the same.

"Mr. Northcote, sir, I'm glad to see you. Now this is friendly; this is
what I calls as it should be, when a young pastor comes in and makes
free, without waiting for an invitation," said Tozer kindly, bustling
in; "that speech of yours, sir, was a rouser; that 'it 'em off, that
did, and you can see as the connection ain't ungrateful. What's that you
say, Phoebe? what? I'm a little hard of hearing. Mr.--May!"

"Mr. May was good enough to come in with me, grandpapa. We met at the
door. We have mutual friends, and you know how kind Miss May has been,"
said Phoebe, trembling with sudden fright, while Reginald, pale with rage
and embarrassment, stood up in his corner. Tozer was embarrassed too. He
cleared his throat and rubbed his hands, with a terrible inclination to
raise one of them to his forehead. It was all that he could do to get
over this class instinct. Young May, though he had been delighted to
hear him assailed in the Meeting, was a totally different visitor from
the clever young pastor whom he received with a certain consciousness of
patronage. Tozer d