"Mother, it was a mistake mentioning Dick: the name is sacred. Nan, if it will please you we will declare that he is beautiful as a young Apollo." "Don't be a goose, Phil!" from her sister. But Nan was smiling. "As for Harry, he is a perfect hero. I expect great things from the great man. To my imagination he is a perfect Hercules,--Heracles, son of Zeus and Alcmene. I wonder if Harry could tell us the name of Hercules's mother?" "Of course not, and no one else either," retorted Dulce. But Phillis did not heed this. "To me he shall be the young Alcides. He has promised to fight the Nemaean lion, in the shape of Richard Mayne the elder. By and by we shall have him striking off the heads of the Lernean Hydra. You look mystified, Nan. And I perceive Mattie has a perplexed countenance. I am afraid you are deficient in heathen mythology; but I will spare your ignorance. You will see, though, I am right----" "But, Phillis----" broke in Dulce, eagerly. But Phillis waved her hand majestically at the interruption: "Mother, to be serious, I consider Harry in the light of a providential interposition. You are always mourning that there is not a man belonging to us. Well, now we have got one, large as life, and larger, and a very good fellow, as you say; and we are no longer 'forlorn females.'" "And indeed, Phillis, I am most thankful for that, my dear; for if Harry be only as good as a brother to you----" "He means to be more," returned Phillis, with a sage nod of her head. "He talks in the coolest way, as though he had adopted the whole family and meant to put a spoke into the domestic wheel. 'I must put a stop to this,' or, 'That must be altered,' has been a frequent remark of his. Mother, if he is dreadfully rich, as he says, does he mean to make us rich too?" "My dear, we have no claim on him." "He thinks we have the strongest possible claim: does he not, Nan? You should have heard him talk this afternoon! According to him, we were never to sew gowns again; Nan and Dick were to be immediately united; the Friary was to be pulled down, and a glorified Glen Cottage to be erected in its stead. But mother,"--here Phillis's lip grew plaintive,--"you won't desert your own girls, and be talked over even by an Alcides? We do not mean to have our little deeds all put on the shelf in that off-hand fashion. I shall sew gowns as long as I like, in spite of a hundred Sir Harrys." And then they perceived that under Phillis's fun there was a vein of serious humor, and that, in spite of her admiration of her hero, she was a little afraid that her notions of independence would be wounded. They became divided on the question. Mrs. Challoner, who had never had a son of her own, and did not much like the idea of a son-in-law, was disposed to regard her nephew warmly, and to accord to him at once his privilege of being head of the family. "In this case, a cousin is as good as a brother," she averred; and Nan rather leaned to her opinion.