m to her low
seat, and taking both her hands lifted her up.

"You need not be frightened," he said softly, as keeping one hand in
his clasp he led her back to where he had been standing; then placed
her in a great downy easy chair in that corner of the fireplace, and
drew up a footstool for her feet.

"Miss Faith," he said, "you are to sit there in absolute silence for
the next fifteen minutes. If anybody speaks to you, you are not to
answer,--if you are longing to speak yourself you must wait. It is also
required that you look at nobody, and hear as little as possible." With
which fierce sentence, Mr. Linden took his stand by the chair to see it
enforced.

"What a man you are!" said Mrs. Stoutenburgh laughing.

"That's not fair play!" said Mrs. Somers. "She don't want to sit
there--if you think she does, you're mistaken."

"She should have been more careful then," said Mr. Linden. "Dr.
Harrison, you have the floor."

Dr. Harrison did not appear to think that was much of a possession;--to
judge by his face, which cast several very observant glances towards
the chair, and by his manner which for a moment was slightly abstracted
and destitute of the spirit of the game. Miss Essie's eyes took the
same direction, with a steady gaze which the picture justified. Faith
sat where she had been placed, in most absolute obedience to the orders
she had received,--except possibly--not probably--the last one. The
lids drooped over her eyes, which moved rarely from the floor, and
never raised themselves. Her colour had risen indeed to a rich tint,
where it stayed; but Mrs. Somers' declaration nevertheless was hardly
borne out by a certain little bit-in smile which lurked there too,
spite of everything. Otherwise she sat like an impersonation of
silence, happily screened, by not looking at anybody, from any
annoyance of the eyes that were levelled at her and at the figure that
held post by her side.

"Mrs. Stoutenburgh," said the doctor, "you have my aunt Ellen."

Mrs. Stoutenburgh however was lenient in that quarter, and told Mrs.
Somers they would require nothing of her but the three last items of
Pattaquasset news--which she, as pastor's wife, was bound to know. And
Mrs. Somers was not backward in declaring them; the first being the
engagement of two people who hated each other, the second the
separation of two people who loved each other; the third, that Mr.
Linden shot himself--to make a sensation.

"Mr. Linden," said