ious;
her figure was pretty and light; her look, as she raised her head and
blushed to see the little party of men, so guileless, frank, and good
that, though the others, who were used to her, thought nothing of her,
to Dick it appeared that Chatty was a very pleasant thing to see against
the dim background of the old respectable house.

"It is Mr. Cavendish," said Minnie. "How curious! It is true sometimes,
no doubt, as everybody says, that talk of an angel and you see its wings;
but generally it is just the person whom one least thinks of who appears."

"That is very hard upon me," said Dick. "My mind has been so full of you
for twenty-four hours that you ought to have thought a little upon me,
if only on the theory of brain waves."

"I hope you don't believe in anything of that sort. How should you think
of people when there is nothing to put you in mind of them? If we had
been in Oxford, indeed--Come into the drawing-room; we shall find mamma
there. And how is dear Mrs. Wilberforce?"

"She wants you all," said the rector, in a low voice aside, "to come
over this afternoon to tea."

"To tea, when you have company! Oh, she could not--she never could expect
such a thing!"

"Do you call one of your brother's friends company,--one? I should say
it took three at least to constitute company. And I want Theo to come.
Mind what I say. If you don't amuse him, Theo will think of nothing but
going to Markland. He goes to Markland more than I like already."

"Mr. Wilberforce, I am not one that believes in love being blind,
and I know all Theo's faults; but to think that he is courting
amusement,--amusement, and papa only dead six weeks!"

"I did not say amusement," said the rector crossly. "I said to be
amused, which is quite different; not to be left for ever in the same
state of mind, not to lie vacant."

"You must have a very poor opinion of him and of all of us," said Miss
Warrender, leading the way into the drawing-room, where the others had
gone before them. Chatty remained behind, being still busy with her
flowers. The rector and Minnie were supposed to be talking parish talk,
and to have lingered with that purpose. Chatty thought it sounded too
animated to be all about the clothing club and the mothers' meetings,
but she supposed that some one must have gone wrong, which was generally
the exciting element in parish talk. She was not herself excited by it,
being greatly occupied how to make the big white Canterb