duty to give them to each other, and not die till the wedding
was accomplished. Harry shared this adoration to quite a
reasonable extent, for a brother; but his admiration for Philip
Malbone was one that Kate did not quite share. Harry's quieter
mood had been dazzled from childhood by Philip, who had always
been a privileged guest in the household. Kate's clear,
penetrating, buoyant nature had divined Phil's weaknesses, and
had sometimes laughed at them, even from her childhood; though
she did not dislike him, for she did not dislike anybody. But
Harry was magnetized by him very much as women were; believed
him true, because he was tender, and called him only fastidious
where Kate called him lazy.

Kate was spending that summer with her aunt Jane, whose
especial pet and pride she was. Hope was spending there the
summer vacation of a Normal School in which she had just become
a teacher. Her father had shared in the family ups and downs,
but had finally stayed down, while the rest had remained up.
Fortunately, his elder children were indifferent to this, and
indeed rather preferred it; it was a tradition that Hope had
expressed the wish, when a child, that her father might lose
his property, so that she could become a teacher. As for Harry,
he infinitely preferred the drudgery of a law office to that of
a gentleman of leisure; and as for their step-mother, it turned
out, when she was left a widow, that she had secured for
herself and Emilia whatever property remained, so that she
suffered only the delightful need of living in Europe for
economy.

The elder brother and sister had alike that fine physical vigor