Page:The Father Confessor, Stories of Danger and Death.djvu/351



THINK it would be well if Miss Gillson called upon Mr. Westcliff; he is an influential member of Parliament, and might be willing to help our Progress Club."

A chorus of female voices interrupted, "Oh, but we have called, and he is impossible to move."

"I think Miss Gillson is a friend of his," the president continued, smiling upon the animated assembly of hats and bonnets, which might, at first sight, have been taken for a crowd of birds, so variously and wonderfully were they decorated by plumage; "otherwise I know it would be vain to send any one, even Miss Gillson, where so many charming young ladies had failed."

"He is not a friend of mine," Miss Gillson said; "I knew him when I was a young girl—slightly."

"So long ago as that," a member said