ng to be bullied into liking
them?"

"You can like them or not, as you please," said Dan sullenly; but he sat
down, and waited decently for his sister to speak. "But you can't abuse
them--at least in my presence."

"I didn't know men lost their heads as well as their hearts," said
Eunice. "Perhaps it's only an exchange, though, and it's Miss Pasmer's
head." Dan started, but did not say anything, and Eunice smoothly
continued: "No, I don't believe it is. She looked like a sensible girl,
and she talked sensibly. I should think she had a very good head. She
has good manners, and she's extremely pretty, and very graceful. I'm
surprised she should be in love with such a simpleton."

"Oh, go on! Abuse me as much as you like," said Dan. He was at once
soothed by her praise of Alice.

"No, it isn't necessary to go on; the case is a little too obvious.
But I think she will do very well. I hope you're not marrying the whole
family, though. I suppose that it's always a question of which shall be
scooped up. They will want to scoop you up, and we shall want to scoop
her up. I dare say Ma'am Pasmer has her little plan; what is it?"

Dan started at this touch on the quick, but he controlled himself, and
said, with dignity, "I have my own plans."

"Well, you know what mother's are," returned Eunice easily. "You seem
so cheerful that I suppose yours are quite the same, and you're just
keeping them for a surprise." She laughed provokingly, and Dan burst
forth again--

"You seem to live to give people pain. You take a fiendish delight in
torturing others. But if you think you can influence me in the slightest
degree, you're very much mistaken."

"Well, well, there! It sha'n't be teased any more, so it sha'n't! It
shall have its own way, it shall, and nobody shall say a word against
its little girly's mother." Eunice rose from her chair, and patted Dan
on the head as she passed to the adjoining room. He caught her hand,
and flung it violently away; she shrieked with delight in his childish
resentment, and left him sulking. She was gone two or three minutes, and
when she came back it was in quite a different mood, as often happens
with women in a little lapse of time.

"Dan, I think Miss Pasmer is a beautiful girl, and I know we shall all
like her, if you don't set us against her by your arrogance. Of course
we don't know anything about her yet, and you don't, really; but she
seems a very lovable little thing, and if she's rathe