, then
laughed hoarsely. His laugh was always wheezy of late, and he
breathed hard when he took exercise.

Sometime in his dim and shady past Colonel Lamson was reported to
have had a wife. She had never been seen in Upham, and was commonly
believed to have died at some Western post during the first years of
their marriage. Probably the beautiful necklace of carved corals,
which the Colonel had brought that night for a present to Lucina, had
belonged to that long-dead young wife; but not even the Squire knew.

As for John Jennings, he had never had a wife, and the trinkets he
had bestowed upon sweethearts remained still in their keeping; but he
brought a pair of little pearly ear-rings for Lucina, and never wore
his diamond shirt-button again. Lawyer Eliphalet Means brought for
his offering a sandal-wood fan, a veritable lacework of wood,
spreading it himself in his lean brown hand, which matched in hue,
and eying it with a sort of dryly humorous satisfaction before he
gave it into Lucina's keeping.

Squire Eben, despite his gratification for his daughter's sake, burst
into a great laugh. "By the Lord Harry!" cried he; "you didn't go
into a shop yourself and ask for that folderol?"

"Got it through a sea-captain, from India, years ago," replied the
lawyer, laconically.

"Wouldn't she take it?" inquired Colonel Lamson, with sly meaning,
his round, protruding eyes staring hard at his friend and the fan.

"Never gave her the chance," said Means, with a shrewd twinkle. Then
he turned to Lucina, with a stiff but courtly bow, and presented the
sandal-wood fan, and not one of them knew then, nor ever after, its
true history.

Lucina had joyfully heard the clang of the knocker when Jerome
arrived, thinking that they were the last guests, and her father
could have his pleasure. Doctor Prescott had been called to Granby
and would not come until late, if at all; the minister, it was
reported, was ill with influenza--she and her mother had agreed that
the Squire need not wait for them.

When Lucina saw the throng parting for the new-comers, she assumed
involuntarily her pose of sweet and gracious welcome; but when Jerome
and his sister stood before her, she started and lost composure.

Lucina remembered Elmira well enough, and had thought she remembered
Jerome since last Sunday, when her father, calling to mind their
frequent meetings in years back, had chidden her lightly for not
speaking to him.

"He has grown and c