No, indeed, he is here, and staying with us. You will see him at
dinner."

"Oh!" said Johnnie again. There was a difference between these two
"ohs," which Elsie's quick ear detected.

"Please unlock that valise," went on Johnnie, "and take out the dress
on top. This I have on is too dreadfully dusty to be endured."

Joanna Carr had grown up very pretty; many people considered her the
handsomest of the four sisters. Taller than any of them except Katy, and
of quite a different build, large, vigorous, and finely formed, she had
a very white skin, hair of pale bronze-brown, and beautiful velvety dark
eyes with thick curling lashes. She had a turn for dress too, and all
colors suited her. The woollen gown of cream-yellow which she now put on
seemed exactly what was needed to throw up the tints of her hair and
complexion; but she would look equally well on the morrow in blue. With
quick accustomed fingers she whisked her pretty locks into a series of
artlessly artful loops, with little blowing rings about the forehead,
and stuck a bow in here and a pin there, talking all the time, and
finally caught little Phillida up in her strong young arms, and ran
downstairs just in time to greet the boys as they dismounted at the
door, and shake hands demurely with Lionel Young, who came with them.
All three had raced down from the very top of the Upper Valley at
breakneck speed, to be in time to welcome the travellers.

There is always one moment, big with fate, when processes begin to take
place; when the first fine needle of crystallization forms in the
transparent fluid; when the impulse of the jellying principle begins to
work on the fruit-juice, and the frost principle to inform the water
atoms. These fateful moments are not always perceptible to our dull
apprehensions, but none the less do they exist; and they are apt to take
us by surprise, because we have not detected the fine gradual chain of
preparation which has made ready for them.

I think one of these fateful moments occurred that evening, as Lionel
Young held Joanna Carr's hand, and his straight-forward English eyes
poured an ardent beam of welcome into hers. They had seen a good deal of
each other two years before, but neither was prepared to be quite so
glad to meet again. They did not pause to analyze or classify their
feelings,--people rarely do when they really feel; but from that night
their attitude toward each other was changed, and the change became more
ap