"No! I should hope not!" replied his hostess. "Do you think they would dare to say anything bad of you here? On the contrary, Miss Farrell has just been telling us how her cousin, Janie Spencer, has been led, by your preaching, to make up her mind to be a hospital nurse. I think it's splendid of her!"
"Yes, it's very fine," replied Mr. Chillingworth. "I am glad she has decided so. Her mother spoke to me of it some time ago, and I begged her to say nothing to dissuade her, but to leave her to follow, unbiased, her own convictions of duty. She has set a noble example."
"Well, I should think you would feel yourself rewarded," Mrs. Blanchard said, as she poured out a cup of tea, and handed it to her dignified guest; while Miss Farrell exclaimed:
"I hope you don't expect us all to follow it, Mr. Chillingworth, and go to be hospital nurses right away!"
"Not in the least," he replied, his dark eyes glancing up at the young lady from under his strongly marked eyebrows. "I don't think that is likely to be your vocation, Miss Kitty, at any rate. But there are other ways of doing good. Life is, indeed, full of opportunities. The pity is, we let so many of them slip," he added, rather sententiously.
"It would be a pity to let this one slip," remarked Mr. Pomeroy, handing the clergyman a plate of macaroons, and helping himself at the same time. "Miss Blanchard, I believe you made these macaroons. They are first-class."
The young man rather resented the clergyman's intrusion, as he considered it. He preferred to have both young ladies to himself, just then.
"The macaroons are excellent," said Mr. Chillingworth, "but I want you to do something better than that for me. I hope you have been trying over those choruses, and the air I wanted you to take as a solo."
Miss Blanchard's bright look clouded a little, and her broad white brow contracted slightly with an expression of perplexity.
"I have tried them," she said; "but I haven't quite made up my mind about the choruses. I don't altogether like the idea of it yet! And I am quite sure that my voice isn't equal to a solo of that kind, in such circumstances."