"I am serious, Sir Henry Challoner," replied Phillis, pompously. "The path of true love is impeded. Poor Dick is pining in his rooms at Oxford; and Nan--well, I am afraid her looks belie her; only you know appearances are sometimes deceitful." And indeed Nan's pink cheeks and air of placid contentment scarcely bore out her sister's words. The newly found cousin sat in silent perplexity staring at them both. Love-affairs were not much in his way; and until now he had never been thrown much with his equals in the other sex. His rough colonial life, full of excitement and money-getting, had engrossed his youth. He was now a man of thirty; but in disposition, in simplicity, and in a certain guilelessness of speech, he seemed hardly more than an overgrown boy. "Well, now, is it not like a book?" he said, at last, breaking the silence quite abruptly. "It must be an awful bother for you, Nan; but we must put a stop to all that. I am the head of the family; and I shall have a word to say to that Mr.--what is his name?" "Mr. Mayne," returned Nan, softly. It was at this moment that the name of Hercules came into Phillis's head for her cousin. What feats of strength did he mean to undertake on their behalf? Would he strangle the hydra-headed monster of public opinion that pronounced "women who sewed other women's gowns" were not to be received into society? Would he help Nan gather the golden apples of satisfied love and ambition? What was it that he meant to do by dint of sheer force and good nature? Harry Challoner did not long leave them in ignorance of his intentions. In the coolest possible way he at once assumed the headship of the family,--adopting them at once, and giving them the benefit of his opinions on every point that could possibly be mooted. "I had not a soul belonging to me until now," he said, looking around on his cousins' bright faces with a glow of honest satisfaction on his own. "It made a fellow feel precious lonely out there, I can tell you." "You ought to have married, Harry," suggested Dulce. "I never thought any one would care for such a great hulking fellow," he returned, simply; "and then the girls over there were not to my taste. Besides, I never thought of it; I was too busy. I am going to take a holiday now, and look about me a little; and when you and Aunt Catherine are settled, I may have a try myself at some one," he finished, with a big laugh.