sources.

But he used to go down to the vicarage with a very long face, and the
result was that every afternoon, there were fresh, girlish faces
gathering round Fay's couch. Dora Spooner would come with one of her
sisters or a Romney girl to help Erle amuse the invalid.

There were delightful little tea-parties every afternoon. Janet, who
waited on them, thought her mistress never seemed happier. Fay was
treated as though she were a little queen; Dora and Agnes Romney vied
with each other in attentions; perhaps Erle's pleasant face and bright
voice were powerful inducements in their way; the girls never seemed
to think it a trouble to plow their way through the snowy lanes--they
came in with glowing faces to narrate their little experiences.

"Yes, it is very uncomfortable walking; but we could not leave you
alone, Lady Redmond. Mr. Huntingdon begged us so hard to come," Dora
would say, and the hazel eyes looked at Erle rather mischievously.

Erle was up to his old tricks again. Fay used to take him to task when
their visitors had gone.

"You are too fond of young ladies," she would say to him, severely.
"You will make poor Dora think you are in love with her if you pay her
so much attention. Those are your London manners, I suppose, when you
are with that young person who has the go in her, or with the other
one with the pretty smile, of whom you say so little and think so
much."

"Come, now; I do call that hard on a fellow," returned Erle, in an
injured voice.

"You see I take an interest in you, my poor boy," continued Fay, with
quite a matronly air. "I can not allow you to make yourself so
captivating to our country girls. What will Dora think if you go down
to the vicarage every morning with that plausible little story that no
one believes? I am not dull one bit. I am laughing from morning to
night, and Mrs. Heron comes up and scolds me. No; Dora will believe
that you admire hazel eyes and long lashes. Poor girl, she knows
nothing about that young person with the go in her."

"Oh, do shut up, Fay," interrupted Erle quite crossly at this. "Why do
you always speak of Miss Selby in this absurd fashion? She is worth a
dozen Dora Spooners. Why, the girls who were here this afternoon could
not hold a candle to her."

"Oh, indeed!" was Fay's response to this, as she lay and looked at
Erle, with aggravating calmness.

"Why do you want to make out that girls are such duffers?" he went on
in a still more ruffled