ock, whilst Captain Gates and Mr. Stroud were making
themselves generally agreeable.

'Have you two been taking a walk together?' asked Nelly as we approached.
'I have been hunting for you everywhere, Hilda. Lady Walker has been
calling, and wanted to see you; she used to know your mother.'

'How warm you look!' observed Constance, eyeing me, I felt, with
disapproval. 'What have you been doing?'

I sat down on the garden seat, glad to rest, and Kenneth, leaning against
the tree opposite, began:--

'Well now, I will give you a true account of her. She felt so disgusted
with our frivolity at lunch, that she went out to get away from us; she
wandered on dreaming her dreams and building her castles in the air,
mourning over our depravity, and lamenting that she had no scope with us
for all her benevolent projects, until she found herself out upon the
moor, whereupon she looked round, and after a time found Roddy Walters
asleep. It was an opportunity to act the Good Samaritan; she hoisted him
up into her arms in spite of his howls, and insisted upon carrying him
home. And I met her panting and struggling with him in old Drake's
meadows.'

'But why didn't you let him walk, Hilda?' interrupted Nelly.

'He had hurt his foot, poor little fellow--it was impossible; even your
brother saw that, for he carried him the rest of the way himself.'

'And now,' pursued Kenneth gravely, 'the upshot is that she is so aghast
at the state of heathenism and wickedness that the village children are
in, that she is going to start a Sunday School herself next Sunday, and I
expect she hopes to enlist some of us as teachers. Will you go, Gates?
I will back you up.'

'Oh, I will go as a scholar,' said Captain Gates readily.

'I think, Kenneth, you are letting your tongue run on too fast,' said
Mrs. Forsyth gently; 'I am quite sure Hilda has no such intentions.'

I felt myself getting vexed under all this chaffing, but it has always
been my way to speak out, and so, turning to Mrs. Forsyth, I said,--

'He is not representing it fairly, Mrs. Forsyth. Mrs. Walters was
telling us she wished she could send Roddy to Sunday School, and I said
how much I wished I could have him to teach. It was Mr. Kenneth who
suggested my having a Sunday School. I certainly liked the idea, and
meant to speak to you about it, but not now.'

Kenneth laughed. 'You meant to have a private confabulation with the
mater and the parson, but we like everythin