and hope.

Mrs. J. Mortimer Van Deuser regarded the apparition which greeted her at
luncheon with open disapproval. This new Miss Philura, with the prettily
flushed cheeks, the bright eyes, the fluff of waving hair, and--yes,
actually a knot of fragrant violets at her breast, had given her an
unpleasant shock of surprise. "I am sure I hope you can _afford_ all
this," was her comment, with a deliberate adjustment of eyebrows and
glasses calculated to add mordant point and emphasis to her words.

"Oh, yes," replied Miss Philura tranquilly, but with heightened color;
"I can afford whatever I like now."

Mrs. Van Deuser stared hard at her guest. She found herself actually
hesitating before Philura Rice. Then she drew her massive figure to its
full height, and again bent the compelling light of her gold-rimmed
glasses full upon the small person of her kinswoman. "What--er--I do not
understand," she began lamely. "_Where_ did you obtain the money for all
this!"

Miss Philura raised her eyebrows ever so little--somehow they seemed to
suit the clear blue eyes admirably today.

"The money?" she repeated, in a tone of surprise. "Why, out of the
bank, of course."

Upon the fact that she had drawn out and expended in a single morning
nearly the whole of the modest sum commonly made to supply her meager
living for six months Miss Philura bestowed but a single thought. "In
the all-encircling Good," she said to herself serenely, "there is plenty
of money for me; why, then, should I not spend this?"

CHAPTER TWO

The village of Innisfield was treated to a singular surprise on the
Sunday morning following, when Miss Philura Rice, newly returned from
her annual visit to Boston, walked down the aisle to her accustomed
place in the singers' seat. Whispered comment and surmise flew from pew
to pew, sandwiched irreverently between hymn, prayer and sermon.
Indeed, the last-mentioned portion of the service, being of unusual
length and dullness, was utilized by the female members of the
congregation in making a minute inventory of the amazing changes which
had taken place in the familiar figure of their townswoman.

"Philury's had money left her, I shouldn't wonder;" "Her Cousin Van
Deuser's been fixin' her up;" "She's a-goin' to be married!" were some
of the opinions, wholly at variance with the text of the discourse,
which found their way from mouth to mouth.

Miss Electa Pratt attached herself with decision to her friend