s to his questions;
he was absent-minded, and only knew that his face was flushed, and that
he was obviously ill at ease.

His younger sister turned from him impatiently at last. "Father, what is
the matter with Dan?"

Her bold recognition of their common constraint broke it down. Dan
looked at his father with helpless consent, and his father said quietly,
"He tells me he's engaged."

"What nonsense!" said his sister Eunice.

"Why, Dan!" cried Minnie; and he felt a reproach in her words which the
words did not express. A silence followed, in which the father along
went on with his supper. The girls sat staring at Dan with incredulous
eyes. He became suddenly angry.

"I don't know what's so very extraordinary about it, or why there should
be such a pother," he began; and he knew that he was insolently ignoring
abundant reasons for pother, if there had been any pother. "Yes, I'm
engaged."

He expected now that they would believe him, and ask whom he was engaged
to; but apparently they were still unable to realise it. He was obliged
to go on. "I'm engaged to Miss Pasmer."

"To Miss Pasmer!" repeated Eunice.

"But I thought--" Minnie began, and then stopped.

Dan commanded his temper by a strong effort, and condescended to
explain. "There was a misunderstanding, but it's all right now; I only
met her yesterday, and--it's all right." He had to keep on ignoring what
had passed between him and his sisters during the month he spent at home
after his return from Campobello. He did not wish to do so; he would
have been glad to laugh over that epoch of ill-concealed heart-break
with them; but the way they had taken the fact of his engagement made it
impossible. He was forced to keep them at a distance; they forced him.
"I'm glad," he added bitterly, "that the news seems to be so agreeable
to my family. Thank you for your cordial congratulations." He swallowed
a large cup of tea, and kept looking down.

"How silly!" said Eunice, who was much the oldest of the three. "Did
you expect us to fall upon your neck before we could believe it wasn't a
hoax of father's?"

"A hoax!" Dan burst out.

"I suppose," said Minnie, with mock meekness, "that if we're to be
devoured, it's no use saying we didn't roil the brook. I'm sure I
congratulate you, Dan, with all my heart," she added, with a trembling
voice.

"I congratulate Miss Pasmer," said Eunice, "on securing such a very
reasonable husband."

When Eunice first became a y