They won Phillis at once. After the first moment, her reserved manner thawed and became gracious; and before half an hour had passed she and Grace were talking as though they had known each other all their lives.
Nan watched them smilingly as she chatted with Mattie: she knew her sister was fastidious in her likings, and that she did not take to people easily. Phillis was pleasant to all her friends and acquaintances: but she was rarely intimate with them, as Nan and Dulce were wont to be. She held her head a little high, as though she felt her own superiority.
“Phillis is very amusing and clever; but one does not know her as well as Nan and Dulce,” even Carrie Paine had been heard to say; and certainly Phillis had never talked to Carrie as she did to this stranger.
Grace was just as must charmed on her side. On her return, she delighted and yet pained her brother by her warm praises of his favorites.
“Oh, Archie!” she exclaimed, as they sat at luncheon in the old wainscoted dining-room at the vicarage, “you are quite right in saying the Challoners are not like any other girls. They are all three so nice and pretty; but the second one—Miss Phillis—is most to my taste.”
Archie checked an involuntary exclamation, but Mattie covered it.
“Dear me, Grace!” she observed, innocently; “I rather 309 wonder at your saying that. Nan is by far the prettiest: is she not, Archie? Her complexion and coloring are perfect.”
“Oh, yes! If you are talking of mere looks, I cannot dispute that,” returned Grace, a little impatiently; “but, in my opinion, there is far more in her sister’s face: she has the beauty of expression, which is far higher than that of form or coloring. I should say she has far more character than either of them.”
“They are none of them wanting in that,” replied Archie, breaking up his bread absently.
“No; that’s just what I say: they are perfectly unlike other girls. They are so fresh, and simple, and unconscious, that it is quite a pleasure to be with them: but if I were to choose a friend from among them I should certainly select Miss Phillis.” And to this her brother made no reply.