think affected or priggish--which were the two last sins in the world
which she would have wished to be accused of, or with which anyone
could accuse her. But with Mr. Arnold, she lost every atom of
self-consciousness. He had travelled a great deal, and he had seen the
world through a prism of mingled humor and sensitiveness, which gave
his conversation the charm of a very original viewpoint on everything.
He told her droll stories about his school days in England and
Switzerland; recounted innumerable anecdotes about the various people
he had seen, many of whom were celebrated for their brains or their
follies; and altogether managed to make an hour shorter than many a
minute. And in some way, while he talked, he had a way of flattering
the shy young girl not by words, but by a hundred indescribable little
attentions, paid unconsciously, no doubt, and simply because he was
thoroughly delighted to see her again.

"My dear, you mustn't fail to pay me a visit during the holidays," Miss
Bancroft urged. "Remember that your father was a very great favorite
of mine--and I should like to be a favorite of yours, if Uncle Thomas
doesn't supplant me, quite."

The old lady bent and kissed Nancy warmly as she prepared to take her
departure.

When the carriage had driven away Nancy and her uncle sat before the
fire for a long time. To remember that afternoon was always a delight
to Nancy; and she particularly liked to recall the memory of sitting
there, as the dusk grew deeper in the room and the daylight faded away
into pale tints, and then into a deep, quiet blue, while they sat and
watched the fire. The flames had died down, but the long logs were
wrapped in a hot, red glow, and every now and then they would pop
softly and a spark would drop down into the ruddy embers.

When dinner was over they sat by that fireside until bedtime, chatting
away with a thoroughly delightful sense of camaraderie.

Absolutely forgetting her mother and sister's ground of interest in
Uncle Thomas, Nancy talked to him quite freely about her ambitions
without the slightest feeling of constraint, impressing him
unconsciously more than she could have done by the most fervid
protestations with her sincerely eager wish to make her life for
herself and by herself. And he liked her earnest, youthful spirit of
independence, perfectly innocent of any pose of
"strong-mindedness"--which to a man like Mr. Prescott would have
constituted one of the mos