minister to prepare Miss Silence Withers for a revelation which would materially change her future prospects.  He thought it might be well, also, if he would say a few words to Myrtle Hazard, for whom a new life, with new and untried temptations, was about to open.  His business was, as a lawyer, to make known to these parties the facts just come to his own knowledge affecting their interests.  He had asked Mr. Gridley to go with him, as having intimate relations with one of the parties referred to, and as having been the principal agent in securing to that party the advantages which were to accrue to her from the new turn of events.  “You are a second parent to her, Mr. Gridley,” he said.  “Your vigilance, your shrewdness, and your-spectacles have saved her.  I hope she knows the full extent of her obligations to you, and that she will always look to you for counsel in all her needs.  She will want a wise friend, for she is to begin the world anew.”

What had happened, when she saw the three grave gentlemen at the door early in the forenoon, Mistress Kitty Fagan could not guess.  Something relating to Miss Myrtle, no doubt:  she wasn’t goin’ to be married right off to Mr. Clement,—­was she,—­and no church, nor cake, nor anything?  The gentlemen were shown into the parlor.  “Ask Miss Withers to go into the library, Kitty,” said Master Gridley.  “Dr. Pemberton wishes to speak with her.”  The good old man was prepared for a scene with Miss Silence.  He announced to her, in a kind and delicate way, that she must make up her mind to the disappointment of certain expectations which she had long entertained, and which, as her lawyer, Mr. Penhallow, had come to inform her and others, were to be finally relinquished from this hour.

To his great surprise, Miss Silence received this communication almost cheerfully.  It seemed more like a relief to her than anything else.  Her one dread in this world was her “responsibility “; and the thought that she might have to account for ten talents hereafter, instead of one, had often of late been a positive distress to her.  There was also in her mind a secret disgust at the thought of the hungry creatures who would swarm round her if she should ever be in a position to bestow patronage.  This had grown upon her as the habits of lonely life gave her more and more of that fastidious dislike to males in general, as such, which is not rare in maidens who have seen the roses of more summers than politeness cares to mention.

Father Pemberton then asked if he could see Miss Myrtle Hazard a few moments in the library before they went into the parlor, where they were to meet Mr. Penhallow and Mr. Gridley, for the purpose of receiving the lawyer’s communication.