ll you what, Eugene, if Claudia really puts her back into
it, I wouldn't give much for that vow of celibacy."

"Bob," said Eugene, "you don't know Stafford; and your expression about
your sister is--well, shall I say lacking in refinement?"

"Haddington didn't like it."

"Damn Haddington, and you too!" said Eugene impatiently, walking away.

Bob looked after him with a chuckle, and exclaimed enigmatically to the
silent air, "Six to four, t. and o."

CHAPTER III.

Father Stafford changes his Habits, and Mr. Haddington his Views.

For sheer placid enjoyment and pleasantness of living, there is nothing
like a sojourn in a well-appointed country house, peopled by
well-assorted guests. The guests at Millstead Manor were not perhaps
particularly well-assorted; but nevertheless the hours passed by in a
round of quiet delights, and the long summer days seemed in no wise
tedious. The Bishop and Mrs. Bartlett had reluctantly gone to open the
bazaar, and Miss Chambers went with them, but otherwise the party was
unchanged; for Morewood, who had come originally only for two days, had
begged leave to stay, received it on condition of showing due respect to
everybody's prejudices, telegraphed for his materials, and was fitfully
busy making sketches, not of Lady Claudia, to her undisguised annoyance,
but of Stafford, with whose face he had been wonderfully struck.
Stafford himself was the only one of the party, besides his artistic
tormentor, who had not abandoned himself to the charms of idleness. His
great work was understood to make rapid progress between six in the
morning, when he always rose, and half-past nine, when the party
assembled at breakfast; and he was also busy in writing a reply to a
daring person who had recently asserted in print that on the whole the
less said about the Council of Chalcedon the better.

"The Pope's wild about it!" reported Bob Territon to the usual
after-breakfast group on the lawn: "says the beggar's impudence licks
him."

"He shall not work any more," exclaimed Claudia, darting into the house,
whence she presently emerged, followed by Stafford, who resignedly sat
himself down with them.

Such forcible interruptions of his studies were by no means uncommon.
Eugene, however, who was of an observant turn, noticed--and wondered if
others did--that the raids on his seclusion were much more apt to be
successful when Claudia headed them than under other auspices. The fact
troubled him