, the
three descended the staircase, with the calmness of people going to
some inevitable fate.

"He can't bite you, dear," whispered Nancy to her mother, with a
nervous little giggle.

Mr. Prescott was standing perfectly still, with his back toward the
door, staring with an evidently absorbed interest at the wall in front
of him. He turned slowly, as Mrs. Prescott entered the room, and for a
moment surveyed her and the two girls without speaking. Then he said,
casually:

"Good-afternoon, Lallie."

Alma shot a glance at Nancy.

"Good-afternoon, Uncle Thomas," said Mrs. Prescott, in a rather faint
voice, and flushing crimson with nervousness. "It--it is very kind of
you----"

"Not at all," he interrupted, brusquely, "not at all. May we have a
light--it is rather dark."

Nancy quickly lit the gas, and as the light from the jet shone down on
her upturned face the old man scrutinized her keenly. A queer,
half-tender, but repressed expression changed the lines in his stern
old face for a moment, then he looked at Alma, who was regarding him
with perfectly unconcealed terror and awe.

"How do you do?" he said to her, holding out his hand. "How do you do?
You're my niece Alma, eh? Anne is the one who looks like--like my
nephew, and Alma is the one who resembles her mother." He said this as
if he were repeating some directions to himself. "I haven't seen you
since you were children." He shook Alma's hand formally, and sat down
at Mrs. Prescott's timid invitation, The short silence which ensued,
while it seemed like an age of discomfort to the Prescotts, apparently
was unobserved by him.

"It has been a very long time since--since I have seen you, Uncle
Thomas," said Mrs. Prescott in desperation, quite aware that this
remark, like any one she should make just then, was a very awkward one.

"Yes. I never go out, madam. So this is Anne--Nancy, eh?" He turned
abruptly to the girl and met her clear, steady eyes sharply. "You were
a child--a very little girl when I saw you last. You resemble my
nephew very much,--my--my dear.

"No doubt, madam, you are wondering at the reason of this visit," he
said, all at once plunging into the heart of matters with an air of
impatience at any "beating about the bush." "I've no doubt it was the
last thing in the world you expected, eh?"

"It was indeed a surprise," murmured Mrs. Prescott.

"I realized that my grandnieces are growing up, and I had a curiosity
to se