nd, or that she refuses him because she loves him? I keep
thinking and thinking, and it is so confusing."

"It is the most maddening story I ever read," chimed in Madge
decisively, "for it tells you nothing that you want to know, and it
makes you want to know so much that you can hardly live for suspense.
You ought to hate that exasperating girl, and yet you feel that life is
not worth living without her. I will say for you, my dear, that you
have achieved the most worrying, unsatisfactory muddle I can possibly
imagine. I believe I shall dream of it to-night."

"Hurrah!" cried Theo--"hurrah!" and she tossed her bread in the air, and
caught it again with a wave of triumph. "I _am_ pleased! I won't alter
a single word, but will send it off to-night. If Hope keeps worrying
about it while she is awake, and Madge dreams of it while she is asleep,
I don't want any higher praise. Never mind if the impression is
painful; it _is_ an impression, and that's the great object of
story-telling. Thank you both. I'm so relieved."

"Humph!" muttered Philippa shortly, and added something under her breath
about "executions making a painful impression, if you come to that;"
which the others judiciously affected not to hear. Phil had her own
grievance by this time, for it is not pleasant to have one's criticisms
overlooked as beneath consideration, and to be calmly ignored by
artistic striplings as a good, commonplace creature who cannot be
expected to rise to the intellectual level of her companions. Like all
housekeepers, Philippa experienced moments of weariness and revolt
against the everlasting "trivial round"--moments of longing for a more
interesting life-work--and at such times the attitude of her younger
sisters made her lot doubly hard. She struggled against the temptation
to say something sharp and cutting, and Stephen, watching her face from
the other end of the table, divined the hidden thoughts. He was not a
brilliant nor, to outsiders, a particularly interesting young fellow,
but just one of those kindly, single-hearted men who are born to make
some woman's life safe and happy; and as, so far, Philippa was his
lady-love, he could not rest while that shadow was on her brow. Before
they went to bed he made an excuse to call her into the dining-room, and
to lead the conversation in such a direction as would invite her to give
him her confidence.

"It is a little hard, isn't it?" she said wistfully. "You saw how