"Personal remarks are to be tabooed from this moment. You must not say, 'How tired you look!' or 'How pale you are!' It is not manners at the Friary, and it is demoralizing. I am ten times more tired this minute than I was before you told me so."

"Very well, Phillis; but you must let me pour out the tea." And then Phillis subsided. But she had started the fun, and Dulce soon took it up and set the ball rolling. And Dorothy, working hard with her dust-pan and brushes, heard the merriment, and her old face lighted up.

"Bless their sweet faces!--pretending to be happy, just to cheer up the mistress, and make believe it is only a game they are having!"

muttered the old woman, as she paused to listen. "But, if I am not mistaken, Miss Phillis, poor dear, is just ready to drop with fatigue.

Only to hear her, one would think she was as perky as possible."

When the evening meal was over, Mrs. Challoner leaned back in her chair and made a little speech to her daughters:

"Thank you, my dears. You have done me so much good. Now, if you want to please me, you will all three put on your hats and take a nice long walk together."

The girls looked at each other, and every pair of eyes said, as plainly as possible, "What a delicious idea! But only two can go, and I intend to be the filial victim." But Mrs. Challoner was too quick for them. "I said all three," she remarked, very decidedly. "If one offers to stay with me, I shall just put myself to bed and lock the door; but if you will be good, and enjoy this lovely evening, I will take my book in the garden and be quite happy until you come back to me." And when they saw that she meant it, and would only be worried by a fuss, they went off as obediently as possible.

They walked very sedately down the Braidwood Road, and past the White House; but when they got into the town, Phillis hurried them on a little: "I don't want people. It is air and exercise and freedom for which I am pining." And she walked so fast that they had some trouble to keep up with her.

But when they had left every trace of human habitation behind them, and were strolling down the rough, uneven beach, towards a narrow strip of sand, that would soon be covered by the advancing tide, Phillis said, in an odd, breathless way, "Nan, just look round and see if there be any one in sight, before, behind, or around us;" and Nan, though in some little surprise, did at once as she was bidden, in the most thorough manner. For she looked up at the sky first, as though she were afraid of balloons or possible angels; and then at the sea, which she scanned narrowly, so that not even a fish could escape her; and after that she beat the boundaries of the land.

"No, there is not a creature in sight except ourselves and Laddie,"

she answered.

"Very well," answered Phillis promptly. "Then, if it be all safe, and the Hadleigh wits are away wool gathering, and you will not tell mother, I mean to have a race with Dulce, as far as we can run along the sh.o.r.e; and if I do not win----" And here she pursed up her lips and left her sentence unfinished, as though determined to be provoking.

"We shall see about that," returned Dulce, accepting the challenge in a moment; for she was always ready to follow a good lead.

"Oh, you foolish children?" observed Nan, in her staid fashion. But she did not offer the slightest remonstrance, knowing of old that unless Phillis found some safety-valve she would probably wax dangerous. So she called Laddie to her, and held him whining and struggling, for he wanted to stretch his little legs too; thinking a race was good for dogs as well as for girls. But Nan would not hear of it for a moment: he might trip them up and cause another sprained ankle.

"Now, Nan, you must be umpire, and say, One, two, three!" And Nan again obeys, and then watches them with interest. Oh, how pretty it was, if only any one could have seen it, except the crabs and the star-fish, and they never take much notice: the foreground of the summer sea coming up with little purple rushes and a fringe of foam; the yellow sand, jagged, uneven, with salt-water pools here and there; the two girls in their light dresses skimming over the ground with swift feet, skirting the pools, jumping lightly over stones, even climbing a breakwater, then running along another level piece of sand,--Dulce a little behind, but Phillis as erect and sure-footed as Atalanta.

Now Nan has lost them, and puts Laddie down and prepares to follow. In spite of her staidness, she would have dearly loved a run too; only she thinks of d.i.c.k, and forbears.

Dulce, who is out of breath, fears she must give up the race, and begins to pant and drop behind in earnest, and to wish salt water were fresh, and then to dread the next breakwater as a hopeless obstacle; but Phillis, who is still as fresh as possible, squares her elbows as she has seen athletes do, and runs lightly up to it, unmindful and blissfully ignorant of human eyes behind a central hole.

Some one who is of a cla.s.sical turn has been thinking of the daughter of Iasus and Clymene, and cries out, "Bravo, Atalanta! but where is Milanion, that he has forgotten the golden apples?" And Phillis, stricken dumb by the question and the sudden apparition of a bearded face behind the breakwater, remains standing as though she were carved in stone.

CHAPTER XXIV.

MOTHERS ARE MOTHERS.

"Mr. Drummond! Oh dear! is one never to be free from pastoral supervision?" muttered Phillis, half sulkily, when she roused from her stupefaction and had breath to take the offensive. And what would he think of her? But that was a question to be deferred until later, when nightmares and darkness and troublesome thoughts hara.s.s the unwary soul. "Like a dog, he hunts in dreams," she might have said to herself, quoting from "Locksley Hall." But she did nothing of the kind,--only looked at the offending human being with such an outraged dignity in her bearing that Mr. Drummond nearly committed himself by bursting out laughing.

He refrained with difficulty, and said rather dryly,--

"That was a good race; but I saw you would win from the first; and you jumped that stone splendidly. I suppose you know the story of Atalanta?"

"Oh, yes," responded Phillis, gloomily; but she could not help showing off her knowledge all the same; and she had always been so fond of heathen mythology, and had even read translations of Homer and Virgil.

"She had a she-bear for a nurse, and was eventually turned into a lion; and I always thought her very stupid for being such a baby and stopping to pick up the golden apple."

"Nevertheless, the subject is a charming one for a picture," returned Archie, with admirable readiness, for he saw Phillis was greatly hurt by this untoward accident, and he liked the girl all the better for her spirit. He would not have discovered himself at all, only in another moment she must have seen him; and if she would only have believed how fully he entered into the fun, and how graceful and harmless he thought it, there would have been no pang of wounded self-esteem left. But girls, especially if they be worthy of the name, are so sensitive and p.r.i.c.kly on such matters.

Dulce had basely deserted her sister, and, at the sight of the clerical felt hat, had fled to Nan's side for protection.

"Oh, never mind," Nan had said, consoling her: "it is only Mr.

Drummond. And he will know how it was, and that we thought there was not a creature in sight." Nevertheless, she felt a little sorry in her heart that such a thing had happened. It would spoil Phillis's mirth, for she was very proud; and it might shock their mother.

"Oh, he will think us such tomboys for grown-up young ladies!" sighed Dulce, who was only just grown up.

"Never mind what he thinks," returned Nan, walking fast, for she was anxious to come to Phillis's relief. She joined them very quietly, and held out her hand to Archie as though nothing had happened.

"Is this a favorite walk of yours, Mr. Drummond? We thought we had it all to ourselves, and so the girls had a race. They will be dreadfully troubled at having a spectator; but it might be worse, for you already know us well enough not to misconstrue a little bit of fun."

"I am glad you judge me so truly," returned Archie, with a gleam of pleasure in his eyes. Phillis certainly looked uncommonly handsome, as she stood there, flushed and angry. But how sweet and cool Nan looked!--not a hair ruffled nor a fold of her dress out of order; whereas Dulce's brown locks were all loose about her shoulders, shaken down by the exercise. Nevertheless, at that moment Phillis looked the most striking.

"I am afraid my sudden appearance has put your sister out dreadfully.

I a.s.sure you I would have made myself into thin air if I could," went on Archie, penitently; "but all the same it was impossible not to applaud the winner. I felt inclined to wave my hat in the air, and cry, 'Bravo, Atalanta!' half a dozen times. You made such pretty running, Miss Challoner; and I wish Grace could have seen it."

The last word acted like magic on Phillis's cloudy brow. She had pa.s.sed over two delicately-implied compliments with a little scorn.

Did he think her, like other girls, to be mollified by sugar-plums and sweet speeches? He might keep all that for the typical young lady of Hadleigh. At Oldfield the young men knew her better.

It must be owned that the youth of that place had been slightly in awe of Phillis. One or two had even hinted that they thought her strong-minded. "She has stand-off ways, and rather laughs at a fellow, and makes one feel sometimes like a fool," they said; which did not prove much, except that Phillis showed herself above nonsense, and had a knowledge of shams, and would not be deceived, and, being the better horse of the two, showed it; and no man likes to be taken down in his cla.s.s.

As Phillis would not flirt,--not understanding the art, but Dulce proved herself to be a pretty apt pupil,--they left off trying to make her, and talked sensibly to her instead, which she liked better. But, though more than one had admired her, no one had ventured to persuade himself or her that he was in love; but for that there was plenty of time, Phillis not being the sort of girl to remain long without a lover.

So when she heard Grace's name she p.r.i.c.ked up her ears, and the proud look left her face; and she said, a little archly, but in a way that pleased Mr. Drummond,--

"All the same, I am glad your sister was not here, for she would think Dulce and me such tomboys!" using Dulce's very expression.

Archie shook his head very decidedly at this.

"Ah! you do not know Grace, and how she loves a bit of fun; only she never gets it, poor girl!" sighing in a marked manner, for he saw how interested Phillis looked. "If you could only hear her laugh; but please sit down a moment and rest yourselves," continued the artful young man, who had not dared to purpose such a thing before.

Nan hesitated; but a glance at Phillis's hot face decided her.

"Just for five minutes," she said, "and then we must go back to mother;" for she had already determined that they must cut their walk short for the purpose of getting rid of Mr. Drummond.

And then they sat down on the beach, and Dulce retired behind the breakwater to take off her hat and tuck up her hair; while Archie, taking no notice, leaned against the other side, and felt well contented with his position,--three such pretty girls, and all the world well away!

"Is Grace your favorite sister?" asked Phillis, suddenly, as she menaced Laddie with a small pebble.

This was a lucky opening for Archie. He was never seen to more advantage than when he was talking about Grace. There was no constraint or consciousness about him at such times, but he would speak with a simple earnestness that made people say, "What a good fellow he is!"

"Oh, she has always been that, you know," he said, brightly, "ever since she was a little thing, and I used to carry her about in my arms, and string horse-chestnuts for her, when she was the funniest, merriest little creature, and so clever. I suppose when a man has seven sisters he may be allowed to have a favorite among them? and there is not one of them to compare with Grace."

"Seven sisters!" repeated Nan, with a smile; and then she added "you are very lucky, Mr. Drummond."