;--but won't you come into the house? I see our
friends are gathering in the drawing-room. We shall find tea there; and
Clara and Millicent, with Grace Willerly, will see that their little
friends want for nothing. Oh! Here is your nephew.--Pray, Mr Jackson,
come in with us; I am sure you will be glad of a little refreshment."

So the elder guests assembled in the drawing-room, and got through an
hour of miscellaneous gossip very creditably; at the end of which all
adjourned to the garden again, and strolled about in twos and threes
till the school children were dismissed and it was time for the visitors
to take their leave.

"What a relief!" exclaimed the colonel to his nephew, as they trotted on
side by side on their ride homewards.

"Well, it was dull work, uncle, I allow," said the young man, laughing.
"But these gatherings are, I suppose, useful and necessary, if people
are to keep up friendly acquaintance with one another, and do what is
civil and neighbourly."

"Yes, perhaps so," replied his uncle; "but such an afternoon is little
better than bondage and lost time--at any rate to a man of my colonial
habits. However, it has given me an opportunity of seeing more of the
young ladies at Holly House."

"And I am afraid, uncle, that you do not find them improve upon
acquaintance."

"Just so, Horace; they don't suit my taste at all."

"And yet, dear uncle, with all their dash, and _brusquerie_, and
fastness, they really are most kind-hearted and unselfish girls."

"Kind-hearted, I allow, but I doubt their unselfishness."

"But why, uncle? What would you have more? They certainly don't spare
themselves. They are here, there, and everywhere, when any good is to
be done, and think nothing of spending any amount of time and money in
making other people happy."

"True, Horace, but there is a pleasurable excitement in all this which
more than overbalances any trouble it may cost, especially when the
world's applause for their good deeds is thrown into the same scale."

"But," remonstrated the young man, in rather a disturbed and anxious
tone, "is not this dealing them a little hard measure? Where shall we
find anything that will deserve the name of unselfishness, if we weigh
people's actions too rigorously?"

"Ah! You think me severe and uncharitable, Horace. But now, it just
comes to this. What do the Misses Wilder and their brother (for I
suppose we must take him into consideration too), really f